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Green Light Smoking Permitted/FlickrAnd if so, what does that future look like?


In just over a decade, the auto industry in China has exploded. As of November 2009, China is the largest automobile market in the world, combining active partnerships with established foreign brands with a thriving, developing domestic market.


China's seemingly unstoppable auto power over the years has worried Detroit, Japan and Europe. Now, their concern may be warranted. China's budding domestic manufacturers and their 100-percent Chinese-made cars are now poised to enter the export market. So what does that future look like?


Less than thirty years ago, Chinese citizens were forbidden to buy cars. China lifted its control on car purchases in the mid 1980s, and the demand for personal-use automobiles has risen steadily since. Between 1990 and 2000, annual car production grew from just 50,000 to more than 600,000 vehicles. In 2009, the country pumped out 13.8 million cars and sped passed Japan to become the world's largest automobile producer.


Last month, China set a new record for passenger car sales. Sales in March rose to 1.26 million vehicles, a 63 percent jump from a year ago, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. These record sales follow an impressive 2009, when China's market grew 46 percent to 13.6 million vehicles, compared to a mere 10.4 million in U.S. sales.


While Detroit slowly recovers from poor sales that lost the U.S. its top spot in the industry, it may never again be able to catch up to China. Chinese government incentives and tax cuts are driving first time Chinese buyers, and those already looking for an upgrade, to auto dealerships. And as car manufacturing plants in China are ramping up production to keep up with domestic demand, they're preparing for what looks to be the next frontier-exports.


The Chinese auto industry has made calculated moves to get to this next step. Numerically, the country is home to far more auto producers than the U.S. or Japan, and many of those are joint ventures with foreign automakers. By law, foreign car companies are required to partner with a Chinese company to do business in China.


Joint ventures in China include Volkswagen, General Motors, and Honda. Despite the famous foreign brand names, most cars made in China today are sold to Chinese consumers. China exported a mere 369,600 vehicles in 2009, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.


In May 1983, Chrysler's Beijing Jeep Corporation became the first joint venture for manufacturing complete vehicles. In 1997, Shanghai General Motors was formed, and a year later the first Buick sedan rolled off the production line there. Of the country's 47 auto manufacturers today, 26 of them are joint ventures, according to Automotive News.


"By forcing foreign companies to do joint ventures, they have been getting a free education on how to build cars and they are getting better at it," says T. Russell Shields, a founding officer of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America.


That's not to say foreign automakers haven't benefited from sharing their trade secrets.


This March, General Motors sold more cars in China than in the U.S.. Chinese domestic sales for General Motors and its joint ventures in China jumped 66.9 percent in 2009 to a record 1,826,424 vehicles. GM China holds an estimated market share of 13.4 percent and the company predicts sales in 2010 could top 2 million. Meanwhile, Ford Motor Company's joint ventures and wholly owned entities in China delivered record sales of 440,619 vehicles in 2009, an increase of 44 percent from 2008.


While many components used in U.S. cars are already manufactured in China-including the V6 engine in the Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain-this explosive growth of wholly Chinese-made cars could soon mean U.S. showrooms will be filled with "Made in China" bumper stickers. The first of these vehicles to make it to the U.S. will like

Tags: Cars, Feature, Corey Binns, auto industry, china, electric cars, future of the car, geely

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Does the Future of the Car Live in China? was originally published by Popular Science - Cars. Read the full story by clicking here.