Abstract
This paper discusses the structural change of the Car Production Networks in the European Automobile Industry which associated with the Enlargement of European Union.
Since 1990's, the transformation of the Car Production Networks in the European Automobile Industry has been changed dramatically in accordance with the market-oriented economic reforms in the Central and Eastern European Countries and the beginning for these accession to EU, which affected the relocation of car production sites towards the CEE. After the CEECs have become the members of EU, many automobile factories in the CEE emerge as multinational companies' bases which play some important roles in the automobile networks. The restructuring of the CEE automobile industry has evolved around the integration to the European-wide area networks based on the division of labor.
As united the CEE bases with the networks, it appears a movement to reform the old regional division of labor between “core center” and “peripheral areas”. New regional networks of car production in Europe consist of three areas as follows; (1) industrial heartlands, (2) old peripheral areas, (3) new peripheral areas. In Europe's industrial heartlands, which have concern about “hollowing out of industry” due to the relocation of assembly plants towards CEE, the opening up new type of “compact-car” assembly plants (for example, Toyota in Yaris France, MCC Smart in Hambach) and the integrated research centers made these areas more competitive, and made them possible to continue to draw strength from their advantages. In so-called “old peripheral areas (the Iberian Peninsula)”, there is an expansion of some production sites assembling Multi Purpose Vehicles and their design, technological and organizational innovation competencies have developed. In “new peripheral areas”, such as the case of the CEE, we suppose that the main purpose of the car makers in moving into has been to assemble smaller vehicles more efficiency, however, some car makers started to carry out the production of more innovative and/or the top-of-the-range vehicles and to engage higher level activities.
The keywords for the European-wide area network system of car production are “specialization” and “clustering”, but nowadays, we need to monitor carefully its complex functions-based spatial structure of division of labor.
It is important to appreciate that the transformation of new production networks in European automobile system now in progress, where the regional integration dynamics eternally works, is the continuous process to build up more appropriate structure in division of labor and to reshuffle the comparative advantages in its system.
