With only 20,000 cars more, India has beaten South Korea to emerge as the 5th largest car maker in the world. Between January and July this year, South Korea produced 2.55 million cars, a bit behind India's 2.57 million, according to Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association (KAMA) data. A KAMA spokesman said, "Demand for cars is increasing steadily in India due to stable economic growth, but Korea is experiencing both lackluster private consumption and exports." Korea could be further beaten by Mexico, as Korea's own Kia set up production plants there. South Korea's auto industry has been hit by worker strikes and increasing taxes, and the nation's domestic and export car sales were anticipated to hit a 7 year record low of 250,000 in August. Strikes have been announced over wage increases, and the industry has also been affected by the end of a temporary tax cut on new car purchases. The world's leading car makers are - China, the United States, Japan and Germany, and Korea usually took 5th place – India toppled that this year.