24/6/2025 |Articles are machine translated
President of AutoSAP Martin Jahn at the Annual Press Conference of the Automotive Industry Association. | Photo: Hana Görlichová
Record production, year-on-year export growth of 3.1% and total sales reaching almost CZK 1.6 trillion – these are the key indicators characterising the development of the Automotive Industry Association member companies in 2024. These results reaffirm the high competitiveness of the Czech automotive sector, also taking into account the fact that the sector managed to grow despite a stagnant EU market that remained almost one fifth below its pre-Covind peak. Given the vital importance of the car industry to the national economy, this is also positive news for the Czech Republic as a whole.
“The growth in sales and vehicle production, together with a stable share in total industrial production, confirm that the automotive industry will remain a key driver of the Czech economy in 2024. The fact that the positive trend of the key indicators has been maintained despite the worsening economic conditions only underlines the resilience and competitiveness of this sector.” Martin Jahn, President of the Association of the Automotive Industry, assesses last year and adds: “The performance of our industry was also affected last year by a number of external factors – primarily weaker economic developments in Germany and other European countries, continued uncertainty in the markets and lower investment activity in the economy. At the same time, companies had to deal with structural problems such as still high energy prices, increasing regulatory burdens and a difficult labour market. However, despite these challenges, the sector was able to adapt successfully in 2024 and we can therefore enter the next period with a degree of optimism.”
Despite a number of challenges mentioned above, domestic car manufacturers managed to increase production by 3.9% year-on-year and thus reach an all-time high in the total number of 1,452,881 passenger cars produced. The total number of road vehicles produced last year rose by 3.8% year-on-year to 1 477 663 units. The number of complete electric vehicles decreased by 16.3%, with 151,407 vehicles produced, representing 10.4% of total production.
Total sales of AutoSAP companies increased by 2.6% year-on-year to CZK 1 570.7 billion. Exports also grew in correlation with sales, up 3.1% year-on-year. It remains true that many suppliers to the automotive sector are among the largest Czech exporters ever. Germany remains the most important export partner with a stable share of 30%. The UK came second, followed by France and now Poland, which ranked fourth ahead of Slovakia as the main export destination.
The number of employees in AutoSAP companies reached 140,874 at the end of last year and has been stable for a long time. Despite the difficult economic situation, there have been no layoffs of core employees – given the ongoing difficult situation on the labour market, companies are doing their best to retain their employees. The automotive industry remains an attractive employer. The year-on-year increase in wages in AutoSAP companies reached 7.6% and the total average wage rose to CZK 59,056. This is 31.1% higher than in other sectors of the manufacturing industry.
As for the future development of the automotive industry, AutoSAP members identify several key areas that limit its further growth. One of these is the need to modernise the education system and the lack of flexibility in the labour market. Miroslav Dvořák, Vice President and Vice Chairman of AutoSAP’s Suppliers and Special Purpose Organisations Division, comments:
“It is necessary that teaching in schools is modernised and adapted to the needs of today’s economy and industry. We therefore need to innovate secondary education as soon as possible. Dual education with a company-based learning model must be the standard, not the exception. We also need to place emphasis on applied research and links with practice when assessing the performance of technical universities.” He also points to other key conditions for the successful development of the supplier base – simplifying the immigration process, introducing incentive programmes to attract highly qualified professionals and scientists from abroad, and further relaxing labour legislation. “However, the basis of everything for suppliers is the certainty of future developments in the field of electromobility and EU green policy, where we need to see a clear and realistic direction, which is still missing and which will allow us to plan our steps further,” Miroslav Dvořák emphasized.
Martin Jahn also stresses the need to strengthen the flexibility of the labour market and adds another topic that will fundamentally influence the future success of the domestic automotive industry: “The automotive sector is undergoing one of the most fundamental transformations and we are now in a period when its shape is being decided for decades to come. We see room to capture threatened production and developments in other European countries. To do this, it is essential to ensure a flexible labour market, increase investment in applied research and generally strengthen cooperation between industry and research institutions. We should therefore include among national priorities the promotion of key technologies such as smart mobility, batteries, artificial intelligence, semiconductors or quantum technologies.”
And what are the prospects for this year? Martin Jahn remains optimistic. “Despite the current uncertainty on the European markets, I believe that we will be able to present positive results again next year,” says the President of the Automotive Industry Association.
