Précis was my favourite part of English lessons which is probably why I put my hand up when the quarterly and annual results come in to the just-auto editoral office. Trying to work out what’s important other than the obvious sales/margin/profit/ figures can be a rewarding challenge – if somewhat frustrating because of the language used.

There are marked differences between how the reports are presented on either side of the Atlantic. European companies tend to be more straightforward than the mealy-mouthed releases from US companies who always seem to find a new way of describing situations. One day they will come up with a euphemism for euphemism.

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Words and phrases recur. ‘Headwind’ (no one is buying any cars/OEMs are still squeezing us) and ‘challenging market conditions’ (still no one is buying any cars/we’re still being squeezed) are perennials while ‘currency issues’ (euro-won too strong/Brazilian real-Venezuelan bolivar in free fall) was prevalent this time around.

The exercise also gives you a good feel for the state of the industry which is largely that North America is good, Europe getting better, South America pretty awful and Asia patchy, but still buoyed by China’s boom.

It is a far rosier picture than it was a year ago, that’s for sure. And, as deputy editor Graeme Roberts noted earlier in the week, companies, especially German companies, are talking about increasing staffing levels in a way we haven’t seen for some years.

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What is missing is much news about new emerging markets. There’s a box in every car industry executive’s office marked The Next Big Thing. It’s worth pausing to see what’s still in it. Lingering at the bottom is hydrogen either as a replacement for petrol/diesel or to power fuel cells (still in that box). Also there are autonomous driving, car sharing and EVs which really haven’t taken off in the way many thought they would. I rather liked the comment by one analyst last week at the Beijing show who described Tesla cars as “expensive gadgets that just happen to be electric cars”. Not just Tesla, you might think.

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Also in that box is Africa – sub-Saharan Africa to be precise. In 2012, Renault described Africa (outside the Mediterranean countries) as the last remaining El Dorado for the car industry. You may recall that Renault has a new Dacia factory just south of Tangiers in Morocco which it sees as a gateway to the rest of the continent.

I’m looking forward to the day when I read in an annual or quarterly report: “Sales in new markets in sub-Sahara Africa are now making considerable headway despite headwinds and currency exchange issues and demanding market conditions.”

But perhaps not.