The automotive industry, those companies and activities mixed up in manufacture of motor vehicles, including most components, such as engines and bodies, but excluding tires, batteries, and fuel. The industry's principal goods are passenger automobiles and light trucks, including pickups, vans, and sport utility vehicles.

Commercial vehicles (i.e., delivery trucks and large transport trucks, often called semis), though very important to the, are secondary. The design of modern automotive vehicles is discussed in the articles automobile, truck, bus, and motorcycle; automotive engines are described in gasoline engine and diesel engine. The development of the automobile is covered in transportation, history of: The rise of the automobile.

The annals of the automobile industry, though brief compared with this of several other industries, has exceptional interest because of its effects on history from the 20th century. Even though automobile originated in Europe in the late 19th century, the United States completely dominated the world industry for the very first half the 20th century through the invention of mass production techniques. In the second 50% of the century the specific situation altered sharply as western European countries and Japan became major producers and exporters.

Although steam-powered road vehicles were produced earlier, the origins of the automotive industry are rooted in the development of the gasoline engine in the 1860s and'70s, principally in France and Germany. By the beginning of the 20th century, German and French manufacturers had been joined by British, Italian, and American makers Major service.

Developments before World War I
Most early automobile companies were small shops, hundreds which each produced several handmade cars, and nearly which abandoned the company immediately after going into it. The handful that survived in to the era of large-scale production had certain characteristics in common.

First, they fell into among three well-defined categories: these were makers of bicycles, such as Opel in Germany and Morris in Great Britain; builders of horse-drawn vehicles, such as Durant and Studebaker in the United States; or, most frequently, machinery manufacturers. The forms of machinery included stationary gas engines (Daimler of Germany, Lanchester of Britain, Olds of the United States), marine engines (Vauxhall of Britain), machine tools (Leland of the United States), sheep-shearing machinery (Wolseley of Britain), washing machines