The production of passenger cars in Poland returns to 1970s level
- Polish automobile industry progressed throughout the 1950s, under the leadership of the Communist Party which ruled Poland until 1989. The Italian carmaker Fiat had established itself in this country in the 1920s. It is this carmaker which allowed Poland to equip itself with automobiles, much earlier than Spain for example. Polish automobile production gradually increased to 400,000 passenger cars in 1980 and up to 465,000 in 1989, mainly Fiats. A transition period then began until 1996, returning to 400,000 passenger cars produced on Polish soil.
- As Polish automobile production is largely dependent on local developments of Fiat production, the cessation of the Cinquecento causes a collapse in production, going from 500,000 passenger cars in 1999 to less than 300,000 in 2003.
- The localization of the Fiat Panda in Poland in 2003 and then of the Fiat 500 in 2007, however, revived Polish production in a spectacular way: peak production was reached in 2009, with 950,000 passenger cars produced, including 300,000 Fiat Pandas and 200,000 Fiat 500. The rest is mainly divided into 125,000 Opel Astra and 110,000 Ford Ka.
- The following years were very poor for the Polish automobile industry. The relocation of the Fiat Panda in Italy, the decline of Ford and Opel, as well as the discontinuation of Daewoo and Chevrolet, caused Polish production to fall to 200,000 passenger cars in 2022. In 2023, this is slightly increased to 250,000 units. No compensation for Poland which has seen factory construction projects multiply in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. The future rests on the decision of Stellantis (owner of the Tichy and Gliwice factories) to stay in Poland or not.