Drawing on the analytical approaches of global production networks, global value chains, and spatial divisions of labor, this book investigates the changing automotive industry in Europe. Petr Pavlínek is a leading scholar of the automotive industry and here he focuses on its restructuring and geographic reorganization since the early 1990s to analyze the driving forces and regional development effects of these changes. Pavlínek explains the spatial profit-seeking strategies of large automotive firms and their role in the restructuring and increasing internationalization of Europe's automotive industry through foreign direct investment. He also considers how rapid growth in eastern Europe has affected western Europe, evaluates the relative position of countries in the European automotive industry, and examines the transition to the production of electric vehicles in eastern Europe. Europe's Auto Industry features original data along with concepts and methods that may be applied in economic geography, economics, industrial sociology and development studies.

‘Taking a global production networks approach, Professor Pavlínek - the world’s leading expert in the European automotive industry - has produced a definitive account of its dynamics of change and transformation in the context of regional restructuring. A must-read for all scholars and policy makers in regional development and the global automotive industry.’

Henry Wai-chung Yeung - Distinguished Professor, National University of Singapore

‘A highly accurate, well-documented book on the automotive industry in Europe by one of its leading experts, which goes beyond the example of the car industry to show how the large capitalist corporations have structured the geography of the world. A must read if you want to understand the challenges of industrial reconquest in high wage countries and how the world economy has been structured in recent years.’

Vincent Frigant - Professor of Economics, University of Bordeaux

‘For students and researchers, this book will remain a core work on the international division of labor in the European automotive industry for a long time to come. A must for all those interested in core-periphery dynamics in the industry.’

Martin Krzywdzinski - WZB Berlin Social Science Center