Slovakia continues to be the world leader in car production, car companies have produced around a million vehicles
- updated January 17, 2023, 11:01 am
According to preliminary results, Slovak automakers produced approximately one million vehicles last year. Compared to 2021, this is a decrease of almost 5%. As the Slovak Automobile Industry Association informed on Tuesday, Slovakia continues to be the world leader in car production.
Last year, 184 vehicles were produced per 1,000 inhabitants. The share of sales of automotive production in sales of total industrial production of Slovakia reached 50.3%, the automotive industry accounted for more than 42% of the country’s total exports.
The number of employees in the sector increased by over 10,000, direct employment employment of 176,000 workers, aggregated 261,000 employees.
Stable despite challenging obstacles
“Given the unprecedented period behind us, we can consider these results to be extremely satisfactory, despite challenging obstacles, the Slovak automotive industry remains stable,” stated the result of the president of the union, Aleksandr Matušek.
Among the key events of the past year, he included the successful launch of kurzarbeit, the signing of a memorandum on electromobility with the Ministry of Economy, the change in the calculation of registration fees, as well as the system of allocating registration fees or stopping the so-called e-invoices.
At the same time, however, he also recalled several unheard proposals, such as proposals by the union in the area of assistance with high energy prices, or a proposal to change the functioning of the Environmental Fund.
Parts and employees are missing
Among the challenges of the entire automotive industry for the current year will be the continuation of Slovakia’s green transformation. The attitude of the state in the context of the current energy crisis will be crucial.
More on the topic: Energy crisis
“If no one around us would help, we don’t want to help either, it’s about having an approximate position compared to our competitors. If we don’t take care of this, we’re going to be in big trouble.” reviewed Matúška.
In addition, according to him, the entire European economy will also face other risks, among which he included the ongoing shortage of some works as well as the workforce. As the union assessed, factories have a problem not only getting qualified employees, but any employees at all. At the same time, they welcomed changes in the field of waste management, education, and support for science and research.
Concerns about meeting goals
Slovakia’s big problem remains insufficient support for low-emission vehicles. This, according to the union, raises concerns about whether we will be able to meet the goals that we have set together with the member states of the European Union, as many car models will already be electric only in 2030.
There are currently around 9,500 electric cars in Slovakia, and there should be around 54,000 of them in 2025. Chargers should also have the same growth trend, thanks to the funds allocated in the renewal plan, their number would increase. However, by 2030, their absolute number will increase to four times the current state.
In Slovakia, according to the association of countries, there is a lack of support for the purchase of electric cars, and in terms of their share in the entire vehicle fleet, the data for our country is at least five times smaller than reported by the majority of Europeans.