Car Production Europe By Nation : 2014

As a region, Europe may not grow much regarding car production in future. The market itself is mature - that is saturated - so no potential within. New car plants are being built elsewhere. Sales fluctuations in the continent will be the main factor as to whether production volume goes up or down. There is an upturn in sales in Europe at the moment, offset somewhat by a downturn in Russia so 2015 should see a reasonable improvement in European car making numbers.

Germany made nearly a third of all cars in Europe, which is one of its best performances. Spain grew strongly and slipped past a struggling Russia, and one could expect the latter to have a worse 2015. The UK has plateaued and will do well to grow numerically from here. French car makers have been switching emphasis from volume to profit over the last few years so production dropped in that time. That seems to have been achieved, so some growth may follow.

Further down Italy has hit rock bottom and with Jeep now part of the production landscape, numbers should be up in 2015. The Netherlands didn't make any cars in 2013, but is back again with the MINI and will do better still in 2015. Finland has work from Mercedes Benz so had a nice growth in 2014 production.

10	11	12	13	14	Model	2014	Share	+ / -
1	1	1	1	1	Germany	5,604,026	31.5%	3%
3	3	4	3	2	Spain	1,898,342	10.7%	8%
5	4	2	2	3	Russia	1,683,677	9.5%	-12%
4	5	5	4	4	UK	1,528,148	8.6%	1%
2	2	3	5	5	France	1,495,000	8.4%	3%
6	6	6	6	6	Czech Rep	1,246,506	7.0%	10%
10	8	7	7	7	Slovakia	973,370	5.5%	-1%
8	9	8	8	8	Turkey	733,439	4.1%	16%
11	10	10	10	9	Belgium	481,637	2.7%	3%
7	7	9	9	10	Poland	473,000	2.7%	0%
9	11	11	12	11	Italy	401,317	2.3%	3%
12	12	12	11	12	Romania	391,422	2.2%	-5%
13	13	13	13	13	Hungary	224,630	1.3%	2%
15	14	14	14	14	Sweden	154,173	0.9%	-4%
17	17	16	15	15	Austria	136,000	0.8%	-7%
14	15	15	17	16	Slovenia	118,533	0.7%	33%
16	16	17	16	17	Portugal	117,744	0.7%	7%
21	21	21	20	18	Finland	45,000	0.3%	491%
19	19	19	-	19	Netherlands	29,196	0.2%	n/a
18	18	18	18	20	Ukraine	25,941	0.1%	-43%
20	20	20	19	21	Serbia	9,980	0.1%	-1%
					Total	17,771,081		2%

Data source: OICA mainly.

Summary: The continent makes more cars than it sells so is a net exporting region. New factories are no longer being built in Western Europe and few in Eastern parts. Increase comes from factory utilisation, as some plants are not running anywhere near capacity. The region is renowned for making good quality vehicles and that is its strength.