Slovak car production returned to decline - the industry calls for a clear government orientation towards the West

Only 993,000 cars were produced in Slovakia last year, almost 90,000 fewer than in 2023. After just one better year, this means a return to the levels of 2020 to 2022, when the sector was hit by high energy costs and the pandemic, as shown by the Chart of the Day based on preliminary data from the Automotive Industry Association of the Slovak Republic.

Source: ZAP, figures for 2025 are estimates

Car production fell short of the record year of 2019 by as many as 120,000 vehicles.

However, the association's forecast for this year is more optimistic, projecting a new record of 1.15 million cars. This would exceed the pre-COVID year of 2019 by as many as 40,000 vehicles.

This estimate also appears to reflect the fact that last year's production was held back by the ramp-up of new models at Volkswagen's Bratislava plant and at Stellantis's Trnava plant.

By contrast, Kia in Žilina maintained a high production volume last year, raising its record of 350,000 from the year before by another 1,000. Kia is the only manufacturer to have specified its production figures so far. Figures from the other plants, including Jaguar Land Rover in Nitra, are still awaited.

The association points out that the European automotive industry faces falling demand, high energy costs, potential new tariffs from the USA and China, and the transition to electric mobility. According to the association, the government should provide more help with these challenges to the sector, which accounts for half of domestic industrial output and employs almost a quarter of a million people.

The association stresses first and foremost that, to attract new investment in electric mobility, the state must demonstrate to investors a clear and stable foreign policy orientation towards the West. Over the past 15 years, as much as 93 per cent of investment in Slovakia has come from EU countries, the United Kingdom and the USA.

Meanwhile, the current fourth Smer government is increasingly aligning itself with Russia, which is waging a war of conquest against Ukraine.

The government's second priority should be to ensure that production costs do not rise any further. The association reminds the government that employers' health insurance contributions and property tax increased as early as the beginning of last year, and further tax increases have now come as part of fiscal consolidation.

“It is essential to make Slovakia an attractive destination for investment and talent from abroad. In the coming months and years, multinational corporations will be making decisions unlike any we have seen before. We need to start sending positive signals abroad immediately,” said the association's president, Alexander Matušek.

The association's leader praised only the fact that the current government had simplified access to the labour market for foreign nationals, streamlined EIA permitting procedures and made retraining easier for employees and graduates. At the same time, however, he said that most of the sector's demands had remained unanswered by the government and that the working groups had not produced meaningful results.