In 2006, the automotive industry was also able to benefit from the dynamic development of the global economy. The worldwide production of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles increased by 4.1% to 66.3 million units, primarily as a result of the higher demand in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). The manufacturers of passenger cars were able to achieve a volume increase of 6.6% to 42.9 million units, while light commercial vehicles remained at the previous year's level with 23.5 million units.

In Europe, the production of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles increased by 2.6% to 20.7 million units. Passenger car production rose by 2.1%, corresponding to 350 thousand units, to 16.9 million vehicles. At the same time, the manufacturing of light commercial vehicles was expanded by around 200 thousand units to 3.9 million vehicles. The growth of European production was caused by the rise of 16% in the output capacities of the Central and Eastern European plants. The new Toyota/PSA plant in the Czech Republic, as well as the increasing production in Slovakia, Russia, Romania, and Ukraine, contributed in particular to this rise. In contrast, the number of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles manufactured in Western Europe decreased by just under 0.2 million units to 15.8 million vehicles. Only Italy (15%) and Germany (1.5%), the two notable growth markets in this region, compensated for the declines in Great Britain (-8.4%), France (-7.2%), and Sweden (-6.9%). The market share of vehicles with diesel engines in Europe increased further. The proportion of diesel vehicles rose from 46% in the previous year to more than 47% in 2006.

In North America, relatively high fuel prices, smaller price reductions, and the failure of Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler to align their product ranges with the market had a substantial impact during the second half of the past year. As a result of production cuts to reduce the extensive stocks, the production of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles remained 0.5 million units below the previous year's level at 15.3 million units. Pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles, which have particularly high fuel consumption, are suffering the full impact of this decline. The proportion of these vehicles decreased from 58% in 2005 to 54% in 2006. The Asian manufacturers made a disproportionately strong contribution to the increase in passenger car production and the rising demand for smaller vehicles with lower consumption.

In South America, falling interest rates and a solid domestic economy more than compensated for the effects of the upward revaluation of the Brazilian real. In view of the continuing rise in demand, the production of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles grew by 11% to 3 million units.

In Asia, the production of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles increased by 9% to 25.6 million units. This development was primarily driven by the continuing boom in the Chinese automotive market, in which the production of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles rose by a further 28.1% to 6.6 million units. The Chinese automotive industry thereby displaced Germany from its position as the third largest automobile manufacturing country worldwide. In contrast, a significantly smaller increase in production was recorded by Japan with 0.5 million, India with 0.3 million, and Korea with 0.1 million additional units. The production of medium-weight and heavy commercial vehicles also developed more positively than expected at the beginning of the year, increasing by 10.5% to around 2.7 million units worldwide in 2006. In Western Europe, the production figures for commercial vehicles rose by 4.5% overall to 475 thousand units, primarily as a result of the growth of 17.9% in France.

The production volume in Germany, Europe's largest commercial vehicle manufacturing country increased by 3.7% to 175 thousands units. Sweden and Spain recorded declines as high as -1.2% and -1.1% respectively in commercial vehicle production. In the Central and Eastern European countries, the 5.6% increase in the production of medium-weight and heavy commercial vehicles to 150 thousand units was primarily caused by the rise in production in Russia and Belarus.

In the NAFTA region, the commercial vehicle production volume grew by 9.3% to 648 thousand units. Heavy commercial vehicles over 15 tons made a disproportionately large contribution of 11.7% to this volume. The main cause of this production increase of 40 thousand units in the past year was the fact that some purchases were brought forward because of the tightening of the EPA 07 exhaust gas legislation in 2007, which will lead to a noticeable cost push.

Commercial vehicle production by manufacturers in South America slightly exceeded the previous year's value, with 165 thousand units. In particular, this was caused by the increased production in Columbia and Venezuela, as well as the large manufacturers' new strategy of using Brazil as a production base for exports to developing and emerging markets.

In Asia, the production of medium-weight and heavy commercial vehicles rose by 15.5% to 1,307 thousand units. This development was triggered by high demand, which was induced by the booming economy in most of the developing and emerging markets of Asia. The highest increase in comparison with the previous year was achieved in China, with an increase of 75 thousand to 575 thousand units, followed by India with an increase of 50 thousand to 280 thousand units. In Japan, commercial vehicle production increased by 46 thousand to 406 thousand units.