In the early 1980s, Germany first made cars (cars) of practical value. The automobile industry was the first to develop in France because of the wide roads and luxurious social atmosphere in Paris at that time. Later, in Europe and the United States, there were thousands of workshop-style automobile manufacturers, producing more than 3,000 models. But early automobiles had gorgeous decorations and were scattered in small batches in many small factories. The cost was high, the price was high, and the sales volume increased slowly. As a result, many small factories have been closed, and only some factories that have manufactured such products as carriages, bicycles, sewing machines and gas engines can continue to produce in small batches. In 1905, Waltz Motor Company produced 6,500 commercial cars annually, which was the largest company at that time.

At the beginning of the 20th century, H. Ford, an American, believed that cars should remove unnecessary decorations and simplify the organization. He adopted the principle of "small profits and high sales", and drastically reduced the price of cars, so that cars could be transformed from luxury goods of the rich into practical means of transportation of the ordinary people, so as to expand sales. He also advocated reducing the number of models, concentrating on the production of single models and adopting mass production methods. In 1907, he introduced effective processing methods and technical management measures for standardization and interchangeability of parts in industries such as light weapons, clocks and watches. In 1908, he put the simple, simple, practical and easy-to-repair T-car into the market and achieved great success. By the end of 1909, sales of T-cars had reached 150,000. In 1913, Ford first established the assembly line of automobile, changed the whole production process of automobile manufacturing, and implemented planned production, synchronous production and continuous production. This mass production technology further reduces the cost, thus causing another round of price reduction, further expanding sales, adopting advanced technology suitable for larger batch production, and further accelerating the turnover of funds. In 1923, he sold nearly two million cars. From 1908 to 1927, 15 million T-cars were produced. At that time, Ford Motor Company produced almost half of the world's production of cars. T-car has had a great impact on the development of automobile and automobile industry, machinery industry and mass production technology. During this period, the automobile industry has become the largest sector in the machinery manufacturing industry, and mass production technology has taken root in the machinery industry, and has been promoted and developed.

Ford's success has prompted American and European auto companies to change their car designs, adopt mass production technologies, reduce costs and sell prices, thus expanding their sales. In 1929, the annual output of automobiles in the United States was 5 million, and that of Britain, France and Germany was also close to 200,000 to 300,000. During the period of great development of automobile, many small and medium-sized automobile manufacturing enterprises were eliminated or merged because of lack of funds, unable to adopt advanced mass production methods, low output and high price. By the beginning of 1930, there were only 44 automobile manufacturers in the United States and 41 in Europe. During this period, General Motors and Ford Motor Company in the United States began to build or buy automobile factories in Europe, forming multinational corporations.

The world economic crisis in the early 1930s in the monopoly stage hit automobile production. However, in the mid-1930s, the automobile industry recovered and developed ahead of other machinery industries, and many small and medium-sized automobile manufacturing companies went bankrupt or merged. In several major automobile producing countries, large companies monopolized the situation. The cars produced by GM, Ford and Chrysler in the United States account for more than 70% of the American market and more than 30% of the world market. France's Reynolds, Berlusconi and Citroen, Germany's Mercedes-Benz, Mann and Opel, Britain's Austin, Morris and Standard, and Italy's Fiat all have monopolies in their own automotive industry and occupy a certain international market. During the Second World War, the automobile industry of all countries in the world devoted themselves to their wartime production, and the production of civil automobiles was in a standstill.