Production of cars in Slovakia has been multiplied by 5 since 2005
- Production of cars in Slovakia has grown even more strongly than in Czech republic, especially as Slovakia was a country without any car assembly plants for decades. From 200,000 vehicles produced in 2005, Slovakia produced 500,000 in 2010, 800,000 in 2015 and 940,000 in 2023, meaning that the country's production volume has been multiplied by 5 in eighteen years. Slovakia is thus the fifth-largest producer of passenger cars in Europe in 2023, behind Germany, Spain, the Czech Republic and France, but ahead of Great Britain and Italy.
- Slovakia first benefited from the development of the Volkswagen plant in Bratislava, then from the establishment of the PSA plant in Trnava in 2006 (following the decision to relocate the Peugeot 207 and 208 from France), the establishment of the Kia plant in Zilina in 2007 and finally the establishment of the Land-Rover plant in Nitra in 2019.
- When we compare Slovakia to France and the Czech Republic (all three countries have been producing roughly the same number of passenger cars since 2020), we can see that the steady growth in Slovak car production has enabled it to finally catch up with the production of passenger cars in France. French car production, having relocated extensively to Southern and Eastern Europe, has been in constant decline since the early 2000s. The two curves converged in 2020. Since then, Slovakia has produced almost as many cars as France.
- In terms of light vehicles production (passenger cars + light utility vehicles), France is still ahead of Slovakia because France produces a lot of LUVs, while Slovakia does not produce any at all.