European automakers seeking global scale have long faced a glaring gap in the world’s largest car market. The collective US market share of the top 10 European marques was under 8 per cent through September, about the same as the two Korean manufacturers combined and less than half the share of Toyota, the top foreign brand. With the strong euro making European mass-market cars even less competitive stateside, the Asians continue to enjoy the best of both worlds. They build most of their cars locally in non-unionised plants that have outshined Detroit’s “Big Three” in quality and productivity.

Volkswagen and Fiat are upping their bets on the US but in very different ways. Taking a page from its Teutonic brethren, BMW and Daimler, Volkswagen will build a plant in the non-unionised south-east and lure over key suppliers. It is even designing a sedan specifically for the US market to help triple its US sales in a decade.