Automobile and Light Duty Motor Vehicle Manufacturing (U.S.) — NAICS 33611

A Histometrics industry primer for public-market and private investors.

Short primer — single-child pass-through. This is a NAICS industry (5-digit) that contains exactly one national industry (6-digit) beneath it: 336110. At this level of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS, the standard the U.S. government uses to group businesses), 33611 and 336110 describe the same set of companies with the same federal figures. This page gives the level's own ground-truth statistics and orients you; for the full treatment — company-by-company detail, economics, regulation, and how to invest — see the 336110 primer.

1. Overview

NAICS 33611 covers the companies that assemble finished cars and light trucks in the United States — the final-assembly plants that turn thousands of parts into a complete passenger car, pickup, minivan, or sport-utility vehicle (SUV), including battery-electric models.[1] It is the visible tip of a much larger auto economy: a small, concentrated set of very large factories sitting on top of a vast parts, dealer, and finance ecosystem that federal data classifies under separate codes.

Because this 5-digit industry has only one 6-digit child, everything an investor needs is captured in the leaf primer. Two points are worth making at this level. First, 33611 is just the assemblers — not the parts makers, dealers, or lenders that make the broader auto sector roughly a 3–3.5% slice of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP).[2] Second, the code measures domestic production, not U.S. sales: Americans bought about 16.2 million new light vehicles in 2025, but U.S. plants build only around 10 million a year, with the balance imported.[6][7] Confusing the two is the single most common analytical error with this code.

2. What's inside — and why the level equals its one child

NAICS 33611 contains a single national industry:

There is no second child to aggregate, so the 5-digit industry is a pass-through: its scope, its firm list, and every federal statistic below are simply those of 336110. (Today's single 6-digit code itself consolidated two once-separate codes — 336111 Automobile Manufacturing and 336112 Light Truck and Utility Vehicle Manufacturing — a history that now lives entirely inside 336110, and one reason historical six-digit series cannot be joined mechanically.)[1]

For the boundaries of the code — what counts as final assembly versus heavy trucks (336120), bodies on purchased chassis (336211), motor homes (336213), race cars (336999), new car dealers (441110), or the far-larger parts industry (3363) — see the 336110 primer, section 2.

3. How big it is

Federal statistics for NAICS 33611 (assembly plants only). Because the level equals its one child, these are the 336110 figures:

Roughly 170 firms and 222 plants generate over $357 billion of shipments — more than $1.5 million of output per worker, the signature of a capital-intensive industry.[3][4] Pay near $118,000 reflects skilled, heavily unionized labor, and the federal Small Business Administration (SBA) sets "small" at 1,500 employees — extraordinarily high for manufacturing, and a signal that this is an industry of giants.[4][5]

Two plant counts, both correct. The Census counts 222 establishments under the code; the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, using a narrower assembly-plant concept, counts 20 automakers operating 55 light-vehicle assembly plants in 15 states.[2][4] The gap is definitional, not a data error — the federal establishment universe is wider than "final assembly plant." Use the Census figures for statistical comparisons and the Alliance figures when you mean physical vehicle-assembly capacity.

Undercount caveat — it runs the opposite way here. Many industries are undercounted because tiny or individual operators dominate and slip past the Census. Auto assembly is the reverse: a handful of huge, well-captured firms. What the code understates is the industry's true footprint — the ~237,000 assembly jobs sit atop roughly 1 million total motor-vehicle-and-parts manufacturing jobs, and the broader auto sector (parts, dealers, finance, service) supports on the order of 10 million U.S. jobs, about 5% of private-sector employment.[2][4] Read 33611 as "final assembly," not "the auto industry." (No values here are suppressed; all figures above are reported.)

Cyclical amplitude. The demand this code serves swings violently: U.S. light-vehicle sales fell to 10.2 million units in 2009 during the financial crisis, versus 16.2 million in 2025 — a useful reminder that a third of the volume can disappear inside two years.[6][8]

4. Investable universe — where value concentrates

Because 33611 is 336110, value concentrates exactly where the child primer describes: a clean set of listed pure-play assemblers, plus foreign-owned U.S. producers whose shares trade abroad. The listed U.S.-relevant automakers are General Motors (GM, ~$185 billion 2025 revenue, ~$68 billion market value), Ford (F, a record $187.3 billion of 2025 revenue but an $8.2 billion net loss, ~$56 billion market value), Tesla (TSLA, $94.8 billion revenue and ~$1.3 trillion market value), and Stellantis (STLA, ~$30 billion market value), with speculative electric-vehicle (EV) startups Rivian (RIVN, 42,247 FY2025 deliveries) and Lucid (LCID, 15,841 deliveries).[10][11][12][13][14][18] Note the shape of that list: revenue is spread across the legacy makers, but market value is not — Tesla is priced on an EV-plus-energy-plus-autonomy thesis rather than on units built.[14]

Foreign makers such as Toyota (ADR: TM) and Honda (ADR: HMC), along with Hyundai-Kia, Nissan, Subaru, Volkswagen, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz, run some of the largest U.S. plants — together building roughly 4.9 million U.S. vehicles in a recent year — but list at home or via American Depositary Receipts (ADRs — foreign shares that trade on U.S. exchanges).[9] Their U.S. plants are counted inside the federal figures above even though their shares are not part of the domestic auto-stock universe.

Market share depends on who is counting. GM's own 10-K reports a 17.2% U.S. share, while Experian's registration-based data puts GM at 17.4%, Toyota at 16.5%, and Ford at 12.6%.[10][15] Manufacturer sales, vehicle registrations, fleet deliveries, and timing conventions each produce a different number; do not treat share figures from different sources as interchangeable.

There is no pure "33611" exchange-traded fund (ETF); broad exposure comes through consumer-discretionary index funds or thematic EV/mobility ETFs (for example DRIV, KARS, IDRV) that hold the whole value chain. See the 336110 primer, section 4, for the full company table, transplant detail, and private-market routes.

5. How the money works

Auto assembly is a high-fixed-cost, high-volume, cyclical business: an owner earns the spread between a vehicle's selling price and its build cost, multiplied by volume, minus enormous fixed costs for plants, tooling, engineering, and labor. Material and component costs dominate — GM reports material cost at roughly two-thirds of 2025 automotive cost of sales — so high capacity utilization (roughly 80%+) and pricing discipline are what separate a good year from a cash-burning one.[10]

Mix is decisive. GM discloses that the variable profit of its trucks, crossovers, and cars runs at approximately 160%, 40%, and 60% of its weighted-average North American vehicle — full-size pickups and SUVs subsidize everything else.[10] New-vehicle average transaction price crossed $50,000 for the first time in September 2025 and set a record near $50,326 in December.[16]

What a good margin looks like. GM's North America adjusted operating margin (EBIT) was 6.8% in 2025, down from 9.2% in 2024; Ford's company-wide adjusted EBIT margin was 3.6%, with commercial-focused Ford Pro at 10.3% and its EV unit, Ford Model e, at negative 72.1%.[11][17] Mid-to-high single digits is a good year for a mass-market assembler, and the spread between those segment results is the clearest evidence that EVs currently subtract from profit for legacy makers — GM took $7.6 billion of EV-related charges in 2025.[18] Capital spending stays heavy regardless: GM incurred $9.2 billion of automotive capital expenditure in 2025.[10] Captive finance arms (GM Financial, Ford Credit) smooth the cycle, and regulatory-credit sales remain nearly pure margin for the compliant — Tesla booked about $1.99 billion of them in 2025, down 28% as U.S. rules loosen.[12] Full economics are in the 336110 primer, section 5.

6. Demand drivers

Demand at this level is identical to the child's: the economy and jobs; interest rates and affordability (most vehicles are financed, and with transaction prices above $50,000 the mass-market buyer is stretched)[16]; the replacement cycle, with the average U.S. vehicle on the road reaching 12.8 years in 2025[19]; mix, in a structurally truck-heavy market where the EPA regulated 34% of model-year 2024 production as cars and 66% as trucks[20]; fleet and commercial buyers; and policy.

Policy is the violent variable. The federal EV tax credit expired on September 30, 2025, pulling demand sharply forward: battery-EV share hit a record 12% in September 2025, then fell below 6% in each remaining month of the year.[21][27] For 2025 as a whole, hybrids, battery-EVs, and plug-in hybrids together made up about 22% of U.S. light-duty sales — battery-EVs 7.5%, plug-in hybrids 1.6%, conventional hybrids the rest.[21] Total 2025 sales still rose ~2.4% to 16.2 million, so the annual trend was calm even as the month-to-month mix whipsawed.[6] See 336110, section 6.

7. Regulation

Auto assembly is one of the most heavily regulated industries in America, and the rules shifted sharply in 2025–2026. All of it applies to the assemblers in this code without modification:

• Fuel economy loosened. In December 2025 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) proposed rolling the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) program back to roughly 34.5 mpg by model year 2031, from a prior trajectory near 50 mpg; most automakers publicly supported the rollback.[22][23]
• Tailpipe greenhouse-gas rules repealed. In February 2026 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized rescission of the endangerment finding and its motor-vehicle GHG standards, while leaving traditional air-pollutant rules in force.[24]
• State authority removed. Congress revoked California's Clean Air Act waivers in June 2025, ending the legal basis for stricter state standards or EV sales mandates.[23]
• Trade barriers raised. A 25% Section 232 tariff took effect on imported vehicles April 3, 2025 and on many imported parts May 3, 2025, with partial relief for U.S. content in vehicles compliant with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). GM alone recorded $3.1 billion of tariff-related material and freight cost in 2025.[10][25]
• EV subsidy ended. The $7,500 new-EV and $4,000 used-EV credits ended September 30, 2025.[27]
• Safety, recalls, and labor. NHTSA sets crash standards and oversees recalls — GM incurred $1.3 billion of increased warranty and campaign costs in 2025 — and Detroit Three plants are governed by United Auto Workers (UAW) national contracts.[10]

Net picture entering 2026: looser emissions and fuel-economy rules (a cost tailwind), but higher trade barriers and no EV purchase subsidy. Full detail is in the 336110 primer, section 7.

8. Consolidation

The industry is moderately concentrated, and because 33611 equals its one child the concentration figures are the same national industry's:

The HHI is a standard concentration measure; ~1,186 sits in the "moderately concentrated" band, and the CR20 of 99.5% shows how completely the top tier accounts for output.[3] The competitive story runs on three fronts — Detroit Three versus foreign transplants, legacy makers versus Tesla in EVs (Tesla still holds roughly 46% of U.S. EV sales), and a graveyard of failed EV startups (Fisker, Canoo, Lordstown, Nikola) from which only Rivian and Lucid survive, both burning cash.[13][28] The forward pressure is toward shared costs — battery joint ventures and shared EV platforms — with cost-advantaged Chinese competition contained at home by tariffs but intense in export markets. See the 336110 primer, section 8.

9. Risks

The risks at this level are the child's risks: deep cyclicality amplified by high fixed costs (16.2 million units in 2025 against a 10.2 million trough in 2009)[6][8]; trade and tariff exposure (GM's $3.1 billion of 2025 tariff cost)[10]; a money-losing EV transition of uncertain payoff ($7.6 billion of GM EV charges; Ford Model e at a negative 72.1% margin)[11][18]; cost-advantaged Chinese competition; rising unionized labor costs (the 2023 UAW contracts delivered roughly 25% base-wage increases through April 2028, setting up the next strike risk in 2028)[29]; supply-chain single-point failures (the 2025 Novelis aluminum fire cost Ford about $2 billion)[29]; stretched affordability; and regulatory whiplash. See 336110, section 9, for the detail.

10. How to invest, and the outlook

Investing in 33611 means investing in 336110. Public routes run from cheap, dividend-paying legacy makers (GM, Ford, Stellantis — GM authorized a fresh $6 billion buyback alongside its 2025 results, while Ford posted a large net loss on special items)[11][18], to growth-priced Tesla, to speculative EV pure-plays (Rivian, Lucid), to foreign makers via ADRs, to thematic EV ETFs. Private routes rarely touch an assembler directly — building cars is too capital-intensive — and instead reach the industry through parts suppliers, dealer groups, battery and charging ventures, and venture/private-equity stakes in EV and autonomy startups, a category with a high failure rate.

The near-term outlook is a mature, cyclical industry with genuine crosscurrents: a cost tailwind from looser fuel-economy and emissions rules, offset by higher tariffs, lost EV subsidies, elevated affordability barriers, and money-losing EV programs. The winners are the makers that hold pricing, keep plants full, tilt mix toward trucks and SUVs, and manage the EV transition without over-committing capital. For the full how-to-invest menu, the watch-list of near-term drivers, and the outlook, go to the 336110 primer, section 10 — this level adds nothing beyond it.

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Sources

Drawn from the child primer (336110), which carries the full source list. Citations used above:

1. U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 NAICS Manual — "336110 Automobile and Light Duty Motor Vehicle Manufacturing" (scope, inclusions, 336111/336112 consolidation), 2022. https://www.census.gov/naics/?details=336110&input=336110&year=2022
2. Alliance for Automotive Innovation, "Driving the U.S. Economy and Innovation" (auto industry ~3–3.5% of GDP; ~10.95 million jobs supported; 20 automakers, 55 plants, 15 states), 2025. https://www.autosinnovate.org/initiatives/the-industry
3. U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census — Concentration statistics, NAICS 336110 (receipts $357.16B; 170 firms; CR4 58.3%, CR8 85.5%, CR20 99.5%, CR50 99.9%; HHI 1,185.8), 2022. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/economic-census.html
4. U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023, NAICS 336110 (222 establishments; 236,806 employees; $28.0B annual payroll), 2023. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp.html
5. U.S. Small Business Administration, "Table of Size Standards," NAICS 336110 (1,500 employees), 2023. https://www.sba.gov/document/support-table-size-standards
6. National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), "December 2025 Market Beat: New Light-Vehicle Sales Totaled 16.2 Million Units in 2025," 2026. https://www.nada.org/nada/nada-headlines/december-2025-market-beat-new-light-vehicle-sales-totaled-162-million-units
7. Automotive World / ICAEW, "Global automotive manufacturing industry profile" (U.S. production ~10M; ~11.6M pre-pandemic avg), 2025. https://www.icaew.com/library/industry-profiles/automotive-manufacturing
8. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, "Pocket Guide to Transportation" (2009 U.S. light-vehicle sales 10.235 million), 2014. https://www.bts.gov/archive/publications/pocket_guide_to_transportation/2014/7_Environment/table7_9_table
9. Autos Drive America, "International Automakers Are Driving the U.S. Manufacturing Resurgence," 2024–2025. https://autosdriveamerica.org/international-automakers-are-driving-the-u-s-manufacturing-resurgence/
10. General Motors Company, Form 10-K FY2025 (U.S. sales 2.9M, 17.2% share; material costs ~2/3 of cost of sales; vehicle mix profitability; $9.2B capex; $3.1B tariff costs; $1.3B warranty costs), 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1467858/000146785826000013/gm-20251231.htm
11. Ford Motor Company, Form 10-K FY2025 (revenue $187.3B; net loss $8.2B; adjusted EBIT margin 3.6%; Ford Pro 10.3%; Ford Model e -72.1%), 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/37996/000003799626000015/f-20251231.htm
12. Tesla, Inc., Form 10-K FY2025 (total revenue $94.8B; automotive $69.5B; regulatory credits $1.99B, down 28%), 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1318605/000162828026003952/tsla-20251231.htm
13. CNBC and The Motley Fool, "Rivian, Lucid face growing challenges amid Q3 results" (Rivian 42,247 deliveries, $3.6B loss; Lucid 15,841 deliveries, $2.7B loss), 2025–2026. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/04/ev-rivian-lucid-q3-results.html
14. Macrotrends and CompaniesMarketCap, market capitalization data (Tesla ~$1.3T; GM ~$68B; Ford ~$56B; Stellantis ~$30B; Rivian ~$25B; Lucid ~$2.3B), July 2026. https://companiesmarketcap.com/automakers/largest-automakers-by-market-cap/
15. Experian Automotive Market Trends (GM 17.4%, Toyota 16.5%, Ford 12.6% registration-based share), Q4 2025. https://www.experian.com/blogs/insights/auto-data-through-q4-2025-reveals-shifting-consumer-demands-while-manufacturer-market-share-remains-steady/
16. Kelley Blue Book / Cox Automotive, "New-Vehicle Average Transaction Price... Surges Past $50,000 for the First Time" (Sept 2025 ATP $50,080; Dec 2025 ~$50,326), 2025–2026. https://www.coxautoinc.com/insights/sept-2025-atp-report/
17. General Motors Company, 2025 Annual Report (GM North America adjusted EBIT margin 6.8% in 2025, 9.2% in 2024), 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1467858/000146785826000027/gmannualreportfinal.pdf
18. PR Newswire / WardsAuto, "GM releases 2025 financial results and 2026 guidance" ($185B revenue; $7.6B EV charges; $6.0B buyback), 2026. https://www.wardsauto.com/news/gm-reports-55-billion-decline-net-income-2025-ev-charges-earnings/810616/
19. S&P Global Mobility, "U.S. Vehicle Age Rises Again to 12.8 Years in 2025," May 2025. https://press.spglobal.com/2025-05-21-U-S-Vehicle-Age-Rises-Again-to-12-8-Years-in-2025%2C-According-to-S-P-Global-Mobility
20. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "Highlights of the Automotive Trends Report" (34% cars, 66% trucks for MY2024), 2025. https://www.epa.gov/automotive-trends/highlights-automotive-trends-report
21. U.S. Energy Information Administration, "In 2025, hybrid vehicle sales increased and all-electric vehicle sales fell in the United States" (electrified 22%; BEVs 7.5%, PHEVs 1.6%; BEV 12% Sept, below 6% Oct–Dec), 2026. https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=67144
22. DLA Piper / NHTSA, "NHTSA Proposes Major Reduction in Fuel Economy Standards for Model Years 2022–2031" (~34.5 mpg by MY2031 vs. ~50 mpg prior), December 2025. https://www.dlapiper.com/en-us/insights/publications/2025/12/nhtsa-proposes-major-reduction-in-fuel-economy-standards-for-vehicle-model-years-2022-to-2031
23. DieselNet, "Emission Standards: USA — Cars GHG Emissions and Fuel Economy" (California waivers revoked June 2025; automaker support for SAFE III), 2026. https://dieselnet.com/standards/us/fe_ghg.php
24. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "Final Rule: Rescission of Greenhouse Gas Endangerment and Emission Standards for Motor Vehicles," February 2026. https://www.epa.gov/regulations-emissions-vehicles-and-engines/final-rule-rescission-greenhouse-gas-endangerment
25. The White House, "Adjusting Imports of Automobiles and Automobile Parts into the United States" (25% tariff April 3/May 3 2025; USMCA content treatment), March 2025. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/adjusting-imports-of-automobiles-and-autombile-parts-into-the-united-states/
26. CBT News, "Goodbye to $7,500: The EV tax credit ends September 30" (IRC 30D/45W end 9/30/2025 under the One Big Beautiful Bill), 2025. https://www.cbtnews.com/goodbye-to-7500-the-ev-tax-credit-ends-september-30/
27. Best-Selling-Cars, "2025 (Full Year) USA: Top Light Vehicle and Car Manufacturers" (Ford 2.18M; Stellantis 1.3M; Tesla ~46% U.S. EV share), 2025–2026. https://www.best-selling-cars.com/usa/2025-full-year-usa-top-light-vehicle-and-car-manufacturers-and-brands/
28. UAW, "UAW Reaches Tentative Agreement on Record Contract with Ford Motor Company" (25% base-wage increases through April 2028; top wage >$40/hour; starting wage >$28/hour; COLA restored), 2023. https://uaw.org/uaw-reaches-tentative-agreement-on-record-contract-with-ford-motor-company/
29. dbusiness, "Ford Reports Net Loss of $8.2B on Record Revenue of $187.3B in 2025" (Novelis fire ~$2B impact), 2026. https://www.dbusiness.com/daily-news/ford-reports-net-loss-of-8-2b-on-record-revenue-of-187-3b-in-2025/