There are about 8.5 millions cars and small trucks assembled in United States of America, of which only 5 million are assembled by the automobile companies belonging to the USA, these three companies are traditionally known as Big three and the remaining 3 millions of assemblies are done by the auto workers employed by the foreign automakers like Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, BMW, etc.
Honda started building its Accord in the United States in Marysville, Ohio, in 1982 and it is the first company which started assembling its parts in USA. In the ’80s and ’90s, the famous trio began building more vehicles in Canada and Mexico. In 2008, building 11,000 vehicles in US, Toyota stood as the top producer of automobiles in the category of foreign automaker in U.S.
Direct export of vehicles involves a huge tax, so the automakers established their assembling units in Mexico and Canada, and exports the finished products to USA at less tax than normal because as per the North American Free Trade Act, the exports within the North American countries should be done without levying taxes.
Though the assembly plants are established in North America, the parts and the technology are developed in the respective countries of the automakers. For example, Honda’s engine plant in Anna, Ohio. Although the engine of the Acura RDX is made in America, Japan is considered as the country of origin. Only one expensive part, the turbocharger, is imported from Japan and it will be installed by the Ohio workers in North America.