Honda was founded in 1948 - which does qualify just! Proton : formed by the Malaysian government in 1983. Yes- government created so not a fair comparison. Per

Honda was founded in 1948 - which does qualify just! Proton : formed by the Malaysian government in 1983. Yes- government created so not a fair comparison. Perodua : other Malaysian manufacturer. Both exist under a heavy tariff protection scheme, so possibly not good examples. Pagani : started selling with no govt backup or protection in 1991. Very high priced, but similar market to Fisker. Koenigsegg : created in 1994, again high priced. Mclaren : created in 1989 as an offshoot of the racing team. To be fair both McLaren and Pagani get assistance with engines from larger manufacturers. There are a few more specialty/small manufacturers that have been created and still exist. I think your original point stands that no new mass-production car companies have been created without severe government intervention. Some of the chinese manufacturers would be interesting to study from this point of view. I'm not sure why this is - I suspect it's related to the massively high fixed costs, but also the huge amount of government intervention that goes on in the vehicle market. There's not a market in the world that isn't affected by some type of regulatory requirements, tariff and trade protectionism etc. I think vehicle manufacture is a bit like airlines in that many people seem to want to be involved for reasons other than making a profit.