European automobile production increased by 9% in 2023
- European automobile production (29 countries: EU minus Malta + UK + Norway + Switzerland) increased by 9% in 2023, to 14.24 million vehicles (VP+LUV), compared to 13.04 million in 2022. This is a good performance but firstly, global automobile production has increased more and secondly this catch-up is only very partial, since the volume of production in Europe had reached 18.36 million in 2017, 17 .99 million in 2018 and 17.70 million in 2019.
- The years 2020, 2021 and 2022 saw European production reach the lowest level in decades: 13.39 million in 2020, 13.08 million in 2021 and 13.04 million in 2022. The missed sales volume during these years can be estimated to more than 12 million vehicles in total (including almost a million on the Russian market following the European withdrawal).
- The recovery recorded in 2023 is explained above all by the rebound in the European light vehicles market (PC+LUV), of around 14%, but the increase of Chinese, Japan and Korean imports have limited the growth of the European production which was not offset by the volume of exports to China or the United States.
- Germany remains the leading European producing country (4.3 million vehicles), ahead of Spain (2.2 million), France (1.4 million), the Czech Republic (1.2 million), the United Kingdom United (1 million) and Slovakia (1.0 million).
- If France remains the third European producing country, it is mainly thanks to the assembly of light utility vehicles which represent 35% of its production volume and even more than 75% at Renault!