The article summarises the advanced world experience in government regulation of the automotive industry using the example of the leading automotive manufacturing countries – China, Japan, India, South Korea, the USA, and the European Union. Leading approach to the study of this problem is the comparative method that has afforded revealing peculiarities of the primary measures applied by governments of the world to regulate the automotive industry have been identified. A unified model for government regulation of the automotive industry has been elaborated. The presented model contains a set of measures for government support for the automotive industry depending on the life cycle stage (inception, growth, stabilisation, top position, stagnation, decline, crisis) of the automotive industry and the level (high, medium, low) of competitiveness of automotive enterprises.