Automotive
The automotive industry is a target for counterfeiters, especially auto parts where the complexity of their products provides many opportunities for copying. Globally the counterfeiting market has established a black-market economy that could be worth trillions of dollars in a couple of years. Today there is no product that is safe and the automotive industry is one of the more lucrative areas for counterfeiters.
Counterfeited Car Parts
A whole car is hard to counterfeit due to all the different parts, it is not like coping a luxury handbag, and due to that many counterfeiters fake instead car parts, often smaller parts. They enter the supply chain and legitimate automotive manufacturers lose over $2 billion annually to fake tire and battery sales respectively. Airbags, brake pads, and engine consumables like oil and air filters are other parts that get counterfeited, leading to serious injury or even death for a driver or passenger who rides a car with installed fake car parts.
Like counterfeited products in all different markets, these products may look genuine, but they are completely worthless when put to the test. Counterfeit tires don´t grip the roads as well as genuine ones, false engines can catch fire, and seat belts can come undone. In India, 20 percent of all vehicle accidents are the result of counterfeit parts.
A contributing factor to the large increase in counterfeit auto parts is the rise of online shopping. You can find almost every vehicle component online today and here is China the major country which is responsible for 85 percent of the fake car parts flooding America. Another factor is the fact that a car contains over 1,800 separate components which gives the counterfeiters 1800 ways of creating and selling fake parts.