A bigger Europe, a bigger market.(News)

Byline: Richard Feast Automotive News Europe

A dramatic socio-economic change is shifting the axis of the European auto industry toward central Europe.

Automakers are vying for early positions in what's predicted to become a booming car market over the next two decades.

In the short term, labor and social costs one-sixth of those in more western markets have fueled a rise in vehicle manufacturing in central Europe after the 1989 collapse of the Berlin Wall.

But, further out, it's the lure of a fast-growing and increasingly wealthy population that's driving the structural ...