Tropicalization of cars

The climate conditions vary severely across the globe and car manufacturers previously made cars for specific countries based on their climate conditions without realizing that with globalization the cars do get exported out from the country where it was originally meant for sale in.

Cars made in Europe used to be designed for European climate which were cooler and dryer than sub tropical Asian countries where temperatures can exceed 40C and have humidity over 80%.  The direct impact of exporting a car designed for the European climate to Asia meant that the cars were not able to function at its best. There were many examples of cases where the cars would over heat as the cooling system was not suitable for the sub tropical climate. The radiators were far too small and other components were not able to cope with the high humidity leading to premature failure. Some BMWs, Alfa Romeos and Audis that were imported to Asia from Germany or UK struggled to cope with the heat. Many of these cars could barely travel 100km across an Asian city without overheating.
Some interior components also started to fade and peel off as the coatings and linings were meant for dry climate conditions.
The car manufacturers only realized this in the late 1990s and started to do global scale testing during the development phase.

The global testing meant that the cars would be sent to the Artic circle for extreme cold weather testing, Arizona desert for extreme heat testing and also to sub tropical countries like Thailand for high humidity testing. The car manufacturer will produce standard specification cars that will allow it to be sold globally and would not risk premature component failure.

In Asian countries where heat and humidity is high, the other condition to take into consideration is traffic congestion. Traffic congestion means that the car would experience greater heat that normal as the car is not moving and very little air is passed through the radiator. The radiator fan and the cooling system has to be sufficient to cope with the high temperatures. Furthermore the air conditioner load on the engine also adds further stress.
The Asian weather also is notorious for thunder storms where huge volumes of rain water can suddenly appear in a very short space of time. The car's engine components also need to be able to cope with sudden changes in temperature from extreme heat over 40C and a sudden cooling to 24C. Components that are not designed to handle such sudden temperature changes will fail very quickly. The humidity aspect also play a huge impact on the electronics. It is extremely difficult to completely isolate electronic component from humidity.

Till today some car companies still struggle to truly tropicalize their cars and do sufficient aging tests to handle humidity. Humidity is a silent killer as the moisture slowly creeps into the components and premature aging will appear within 3 years instead of the intended 5 years.

Tropicalization is not just for car components but also tyres. Previously tyres from Europe struggled in extreme heat and humid conditions in Asia. Many started to blister after only 6 months of use.

Globalization means that almost everything can be sold and shipped across the globe easily, tropicalization has become very important aspect of car design and manufacturing.