European Automotive Industry in the Century of Asia

The automotive industry’s growth has varied from one EU country to another. France, for example, started to lose its position as a world automotive power after 2008. The production of passenger cars in France in the pre-COVID year of 2009 amounted to about two-thirds of the pre-crisis year of 2007, i.e., a fall of less than one million passenger cars. Italy, Belgium, Sweden, and Poland also experienced substantial decreases. On the contrary, the automotive sector flourished in some former Eastern bloc countries, such as Slovakia and the Czech Republic. With 1.4 million vehicles produced in 2019, Czechia ranked fifth among EU Member States and fourth in terms of passenger car production (Czechia outpaced the UK, which experienced a significant year-on-year decline due to Brexit, among other factors). Hungary and Romania managed to entice automotive companies with a skilled and cheap workforce (both countries also benefited from a low corporate tax rate), making them the figurative winners in terms of production growth. The relative importance of the automotive industry in Slovakia and the Czech Republic becomes even more apparent when looking at the number of vehicles produced per 1,000 inhabitants. Both countries are among the world leaders in this indicator, with Slovakia producing 175 cars in 2021 and Czechia 104. When calculating the indicator for the number of motor vehicles produced per 1,000 inhabitants in the world economies and the largest producing countries (for example, China produced almost 14 million more cars than the EU in 2021), it becomes clear that China has only 19 motor vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants and the US 28. Table 2.1: Motor vehicle production in the EU and selected economies in 2021

Passenger cars (thous.)

Motor vehicles produced per 1,000 inhabitants

Change 2021/2020

Total (thous.)

Change 2021/2020

Country

Germany

2,889 1,618

-15% 3,272

-14%

39.4 45.2 20.5

Spain France

-8%

2,141

-5%

841

-3% 1,388 -2% 1,113 1% 957 -5% 732 -5% 415 -7% 407 -11% 393 5% 293 5% 279 -4% 260 -26% 154 15% 139 -32% 96

3%

Czechia Slovakia

1,107

-2%

104.0 175.3

957 433 414 407 195 258 201 228

1%

Italy

-6% -4% -7%

12.4 42.6 21.2 10.4 28.2 27.1 22.5

Hungary Romania Poland Sweden Portugal Belgium

-13% 56%

5%

-1%

Netherlands

93

-20% 13% -32%

8.8

Austria Slovenia

124

15.6 45.4

96

18