With over 12.1 million (5.6% of total EU employment) people now working in the automotive sector or related industries throughout Europe, producing 17.2 million vehicles per year, the automotive industry is widely believed to be ‘on the mend’ after being badly hit by the economic crisis of the late 2000s.
The automotive industry continues to be a major provider of jobs for European citizens and a major source of revenue and tax generation for governments.
As a leading provider of I.T. solutions for car dealers throughout Europe, DATAFIRST is particularly interested in what is happening within the industry and is constantly monitoring industry news. As such, we have studied the new auto industry guide published by ACEA in order to propose our readers with an overview.
Production
Almost 20% of worldwide motor vehicle production takes place in the EU. But how does Europe compare with the rest of the world? In fact, with 20.6million units produced in 2014 (this figure represents a 3% increase compared with 2013), Europe (including Turkey and CIS countries) is second only to China (24 million units representing 27% of world production).
So which countries within the European Union are producing the most vehicles? With nearly 6 million units produced in 2014, Germany is by far the European leader, with Spain a rather distant second place, producing 2.4 million vehicles. France is in third position with 1.9 million vehicles.
Sales
89.3 million vehicles were sold worldwide in 2014.
Despite a decline in vehicles sales in some countries such as Russia and Turkey, the increased consumer demand in Asia, where passenger car sales have doubled over the past seven years, as well as North America, is counter balancing the figures and as such overall international vehicle registrations are on the increase and 2015 sales are estimated to be yet higher. Europe represents just over 20% of international vehicle sales. The distribution per continent being as follows:
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Import & Export
The number of vehicles imported into the European Union in 2014 was 2.4 million units. Over 6 million vehicles were exported and the main destinations were : USA (1 million units), China (0.61 million units), Turkey (0.42 million units), Russia (0.33 million units), Switzerland (0.3 million units).
Environmental issues : fuel efficiency and vehicle emissions
The percentage share of diesel vs petrol passenger cars produced in the European Union has barely evolved over the last four years; however alternative fuel vehicles represent a small but growing share of the car market. Market demand for more fuel efficient vehicles is on the increase.
As regards new car CO2 emissions, the downward trend is continuing. The average emission rate for the European Union in 2014 was 13.4g CO2/km, which was 2.6% less than 2013.
In 2014, the top six best performing countries in terms of annual emissions reduction were Cyprus, Latvia, Estonia, Bulgaria, Poland, Slovenia (although some of these countries still remain at the top of the list in terms of C2 emissions).
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Research & Development
The European Union is the world’s largest investor in automotive sector research and development. The automobile and parts industry is the industrial sector in which the European Union invested the most nearly 42 million €), far ahead of the pharmaceuticals & biotechnology industry (28 million €).
In conclusion, industry statistics show that the recovering European automotive industry continues to provide employment and mobility to its citizens and is the world leader in terms of innovation.
Sources :
ACEA / The Automotive Industry Pocket Guide
http://www.statista.com/topics/1487/automotive-industry/
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