According to the top 1000 global companies R&D investment announced by the UK's Ministry of Commerce, Innovation and Skills in 2009 (based on 2008 financial data), there are 20 auto vehicle companies and 49 auto parts (including tires) companies. (See Table 1, Table 2)

Note: ZF Lenksysteme is a joint venture between Bosch and ZF.

Of the 69 automotive companies listed on this list, there is only one Chinese company, Dongfeng Motor Corporation.

From the perspective of R&D investment, the top ten companies in the list are Toyota, Volkswagen, General Motors, Ford, Honda, Daimler, Nissan, BMW, PSA Peugeot Citroen, and Renault. Of the auto parts companies, the top ten were Bosch, Denso, Continental, Delphi, Aisin Seiki, Valeo, Bridgestone, ZF, Michelin, and Hella.

Judging from the proportion of research and development investment in sales, the proportion of R&D investment of most of the 20 vehicle companies is between 3%-6% or slightly over 6%. There are four car companies - Mitsubishi, Dongfeng, Tata, Hyundai's share of 1% -3%. Another company, Porsche, has invested 12% of its R&D investment, which is the highest among all automotive companies.

The proportion of R&D investment of auto parts companies on the list is mainly in the range of 1%-9%. Among them, the highest proportion of R&D investment was Delphi, which was 9.3%. Another 6 companies have more than 6% of R&D investment. 18 companies have less than 3% of R&D investment.

The 49 auto parts companies with the highest global investment in R&D are mostly companies headquartered in Japan, the United States, and Germany. Among them, there are 17 Japanese companies, 14 American companies, and 9 German companies. In addition, there are four parts and components companies in France on the list, the United Kingdom, Italy, Sweden have a company on the list. South Korea also has two parts companies - Hyundai Mobis and Hankook Tire.