AUTOMOTIVE STUDY 2025 / Šaroch (ed.) et al.

(excluding the impact of other subcontracting industries) in GDP at 3.6%. Slovakia, which dominated this ranking in 2020 and 2021, together with Germany, traditionally considered one of the automotive leaders, achieved an automotive share of GDP of 3.3% in 2023. Automobile production in the European Union represents, among other things, a very important component of foreign trade at European and global level. In 2023, passenger car exports from the European Union thrived, reaching a value of €176.63 billion, representing 1.04% of EU GDP (net exports amounted to 0.58% of GDP) and a year-on-year increase of 12%. e year 2023 was already the year of the return to growth of the automotive market after years of decline linked to the COVID pandemic and other problems in the world economy. In the European Union, 10,547,716 passenger cars were newly registered, representing a growth of 13.9% compared to 2022. With the exception of Hungary (-3.4%), all Member States saw year-on-year growth in new passenger car registrations in 2023. In 2023, 1,539,000 pure electric cars will be newly registered in the EU (a 37% year-on-year increase), with the highest absolute sales in Germany (524,000), France (298,000) and the Netherlands (114,000). In 2023, although passenger pure electric cars boosted sales with a share of almost 15% in new registrations, petrol cars continued to dominate the market with a market share of 35.3% and hybrid-electric cars came second with a share of 25.8%. However, pure e-electric cars did score one small victory by overtaking diesel cars for the rst time, whose share remained stable at 13.6%. A signi cant trend in the EU, which can be considered a mature market, is the ageing of the eet, with the average age of registered cars increasing by almost two years between 2015 and 2023, and this trend prevailing in most of the Member States, including the most economically advanced ones. Despite the problems and challenges associated with the coronary crisis, the Volkswagen Group has maintained its leading position in new passenger car registrations in the European market. With sales of around a quarter of all new vehicles in the region in 2023, equivalent to more than 2.5 million passenger cars, the Volkswagen Group remains the largest player in the European automotive market.

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