U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Vehicle Technologies Office

Fact #547: December 1, 2008
Research and Development (R&D) Spending in the Automotive Industry

In overall money spent, Toyota tops the list of R&D spending at $8.39 billion dollars during 2007. However, as a percentage of total sales, the automotive supplier Denso Corporation was by far the most heavily invested in R&D followed by BMW and Honda.

Automotive Industry Leaders in R&D for 2007
Bar graph showing the R&D investment in relation to the percentage of total sales by automotive industry leaders. For more detailed information, see the table below.

Supporting Information

Automotive Industry Leaders in R&D for 2007
Company 2007 R&D Spending
(Billions of Dollars)		 Percent of 2007 Sales
Toyota 8.39 3.6
General Motors 8.10 4.5
Ford 7.50 4.3
Honda 5.14 4.9
Volkswagen 4.76 3.2
Daimler 4.32 3.2
Nissan 4.00 4.2
BMW 4.00 5.2
Peugeot 2.84 3.4
Denso Corp. 2.72 7.7

Source: Crain Communications. Automotive News, October 27, 2008.

 

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