Slovakian carmakers produced around 985,000 vehicles last year, the majority of them coming from Slovakia’s automotive oasis – Bratislava Motor City. The result can still be considered great, given the current situation. The country’s powerful car production represents 44% of its entire industry, placing Slovakia on the list of the most important automotive hubs in Europe. “The result achieved by the automotive industry in 2020 caused that the original catastrophic predictions of a two-digit economic drop did not come to fruition,” said Alexander Matušek, chair of the Slovak Automotive Industry Association (ZAP). Matušek appreciated the legislative measures to minimise the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and concluded: “These tools helped us to flexibly respond to market developments and successfully restore production after nearly all Europe was put out of operation.”

Slovakia is the world’s largest producer of cars per capita Vehicles and car components coming out from Bratislava Motor City represent about half the exports of Slovakian industry. Thus, it is vital that car production exceeds 1 million in 2021, according to ZAP. The association expects the market to recover this year and the sale of new vehicles to amount to about 95,000. The new car market failed to compensate for the drop caused by the governmental measures and the closure of plants, and it eventually dropped 25 per cent compared with 2019, to 84,909 vehicles.

In 2016 alone, Slovakia produced 1,040,000 cars for the European market, thus making Slovakia the world’s largest producer of cars per capita with a population of five million. The record-breaking year 2019 saw Volkswagen Slovakia, Kia Motors Slovakia, Groupe PSA Slovakia, and Jaguar Land Rover produce more than 1,100,000 vehicles. A testament to Slovakia’s importance is the €4.5 billion invested by the Volkswagen Group.

Meanwhile, carmakers need to continue meeting the commitments adopted as part of green and sustainable European strategies. Slovakia has lately become the centre of creativity and innovative solutions, particularly in the automotive industry. A great example is one of Slovakia’s numerous startups InoBat Auto, whose objective is to produce customised batteries for electric cars. The company will provide 240,000 electric vehicles with cutting edge batteries by 2024.

Bratislava – Perfect for hosting automotive events Bratislava has proven itself as a city perfect for hosting automotive events. Among the advantages are the easy accessibility and the fact that it has everything and more in comparison to bigger and much more notorious competitors. If we express ourselves in the automotive language, the hardware and software in Bratislava are perfectly coordinated with each other. Find out more about Slovakia’s booming automotive industry at Bratislava Motor City.