The shortening of the automotive supply chain

After decades of stretching global supply chains to cut costs, automakers are now reshaping globalization through nearshoring and regionalized production closer to key markets.

For decades, the car industry perfected the art of distance. Design in Germany, components from Japan and South Korea, wiring harnesses from Mexico, electronics from mainland China and final assembly wherever labor was the cheapest. The logic was simple: stretching the supply chain across borders, arbitrage wages and scale, and trusting that trade would remain broadly liberal and logistics would remain frictionless.