The concept of emerging markets for the automobile industry is changing due to China's emergence as the world's largest car market and the rise of Mexico.
Korea's automobile industry is paying increasing attention to the BRIMs (consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, and Mexico), a new word coined by dropping China and adding Mexico to the existing idea of BRICs.
It is no longer feasible to include China in the BRICs since China had grown into the world's largest car market. In addition, China is causing an illusion to the overall statistics of the BRICs market.
The number of cars sold in BRICs last year totaled 32.86 million units, of which China accounted for 72 percent or 23.49 million. Against this backdrop, even when car sales grow 25 percent in other BRICs markets, the overall growth of BRICs market could turn negative if China record a 10-percent decline in car sales.
The automobile industry is calling for the need to redefine the concept of emerging markets towards BRIMs by adding Mexico. Mexico's car market has been on a steady growth, with major car makers rushing to establish their production bases in Mexico.