1st ICAI 2020

International Conference on Automotive Industry 2020

Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic

manufacturing sector according to the CZSO. In the pre-crisis year of 2008 it had risen to almost 12% and by 2018 it had grown nearly another two percent to 13.6%, which was the industry’s highest share of employment in the history of Czechia. About 3.5% of all persons employed in Czechia were employed by the automotive industry in 2018. The future development of the automotive industry will be influenced by attempts to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Already this year car makers are facing a big test, when they must ensure that almost all the new cars they sell meet a strict limit on emissions (European Commission, 2019). Beginning in 2021, that limit has been set at 95 g of CO 2 released per kilometre. Hybrid cars will have an advantage because a coefficient will be applied to their sales that increases their weight in the emissions calculation, but that is only temporary. Further tightening of these already significant reductions (the average emissions of newly registered passenger cars in the EU was just above 120 g CO 2 /km in 2018) are expected in the next few years. Emissions goals have been set for 2030 that are 37.5% lower still. Although these goals are far from final, it is expected that attempts to achieve emissions neutrality will continue in Europe. The importance of the automobile industry to Czechia and Germany is obvious, both from the standpoint of its contribution to GVA (and the overall GDP) of each country as well as the gross value it adds to the performance of their manufacturing industries, of which motor vehicle production (other than motorcycles), trailers, and semi-trailers (CZ NACE C29) is part. Gross Value Added reflects the overall productiveness of the sector and is a graphic indicator of the health of the overall economy. The importance of the automobile industry to the Czech economy has risen significantly over the time period we are following and the value added by the sector has been making an ever-greater contribution to the country’s total GVA (Šaroch et al, 2019). In the EU as a whole the sector’s contribution has in fact increased only slightly, but in Czechia it has grown by several percent during the period we studied and it must be noted that an economic crisis was experienced in that period that had significant impact on all EU economies and their automotive industries. In 2018 the automobile industry in Czechia created 9,762.5 million euros of Gross Value Added for the country, which was about 5.2% of the national economy’s overall GVA (and 20.4% of the manufacturing sector’s GVA). Manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers, and semi-trailers also grew modestly in euro terms, but at a much slower pace than the overall manufacturing sector and the national economy as a whole. The sector’s share of national GVA declined year on year in 2018 by 0.4%, (and its share in that of the manufacturing sector by 0.6%). The value added by the Czech automobile industry has certainly increased, but slower than the rest of the manufacturing sector and the economy as a whole.

161