More than one million cars were produced in Slovakia again. Analysts were surprised – Magazine – Auto
Slovakia continues to be a world leader in car production, with 184 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants produced in 2021.
photo: Róbert Hüttner, The truth
Approximately 4 percent more cars were produced in Slovakia year-on-year.
According to preliminary results, just over 1,000,000 cars were produced in Slovakia in 2021, a slight increase of about 4 percent compared to the previous year. The same volume of production is expected in 2022. Just for the sake of interest, in January of this year, a 15-millionth vehicle made in Slovakia left the production line.
Slovakia continues to be the world leader in the production of vehicles per capita, ie per 1,000 inhabitants. In terms of numbers, this means that for every 1,000 inhabitants, 184 vehicles were produced in Slovakia in 2021. In this indicator, Slovakia is followed by the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Hungary and Germany.
Another interesting indicator is the number of cars produced per employee. We are third overall. We were overtaken by Spain, where 18 cars are produced per employee, and Slovenia, where it is 13.2. In Slovakia it is 12.8, while the European average is 7.4 cars per employee. The slight year-on-year increase in cars was a pleasant surprise. Last year, the situation developed like a swing. The beginning of the year of production and also the sale of rocket cars increased and they expected that the year 2021 would be comparable to the record year 2019. Just for comparison – it made 1.11 loves and sold 101,568 cars in Slovakia.
But then came the semiconductor crisis, and other waves of COVID cured us of “coronal optimism.” Fortunately, Slovak carmakers were not so affected. Jaguar Land Rover and Volkswagen also produce more expensive cars. They had a higher priority for their parent competitors. Not to mention that the refurbished Land Rover Defender, made in Nitra, has become a modern hit and is sold literally “like warm rolls”.
Žilina’s Kii chips are so lacking and, in addition, at the end of last year they started production of the fifth generation Sportage model, which is strategic for Kiu. Since the second quarter, production outages have probably affected the Trnava Stellantis the most, which had to cancel a total of 111 production changes last year. The Peugeot 208 and Citroën C3 models, which are still in production there, do not have a high margin. But they are so popular that Stellantis could not fundamentally limit their production. At the end of 2021, however, the lack of components, because it is not just about chips, had a more significant impact on the entire Volkswagen, where the situation is likely to stabilize for several more months.
Nevertheless, the share of car production in the total industrial production of Slovakia reached 47.7 percent and the automotive industry accounts for more than 42 percent of the country’s total exports. The number of employees in it decreased slightly (by about 10,000 people). Direct employment of employees amount to 164 thousand, aggregated 245 thousand employees. In the event of a more significant decrease in staff, about 25 thousand.