Although total vehicle production in June saw a 9.1 per cent increase compared to the previous year, the production of electrified cars fell sharply by 42.2 per cent compared to the same month in 2023.
“Spain is one of the world’s leading car producers and, generally speaking, more than 70 per cent of production is exported to third countries,” says José Luis Do Muiño Cid, Commercial Director at Elcome, to Mobility Portal España.
The predominant destination of the “made in Spain” units is the European Union.
According to the Spanish Association of Automobile and Truck Manufacturers (ANFAC), the end of aid for the purchase of zero and low emission cars in countries such as Germany is negatively affecting demand.
Especially considering that this country is one of the key markets for Spanish exports, so a drop in demand directly impacts orders placed with national factories.
This shows that encouraging the sale of these electric vehicles both in Spain and in Europe is essential, since without a solid base, it is difficult to maintain a high production volume.
As well as providing stability and security from a political perspective, especially in the context of the recent European elections, which have generated speculation about the possible lifting of the ban on combustion vehicles from 2035.
Specifically, during the month of June, 14,578 electrified vehicles were manufactured.
Within this segment, pure electric and plug-in hybrid passenger cars fell by 46.7 per cent.
As a result, the share of zero- and low-emission car production fell to 6.7 per cent of total production, marking a decrease of four percentage points compared to the previous year.
In the first half of the year, these represented 8.5 per cent of total production, with 113,430 units, a reduction of 23.5 per cent compared to the first six months of 2023.
As regards exports, 186,813 cars were shipped out of Spain in June, which represents a 9 per cent drop compared to the same month last year.
In the year-to-date, the country has exported 1,172,211 vehicles, maintaining a similar pace to that of 2023, but with a clear decrease in demand in some key markets.
The data show that most exports, 93.5 per cent in June, are destined for European markets, although the volume has decreased by 6.7 per cent due to the drop in demand in countries such as France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
At the same time, some markets have shown significant increases in their orders, including the Netherlands (53 per cent), Belgium (25.1 per cent) and Poland (17.9 per cent).
The largest declines were recorded in Turkey (-36.2 per cent), the United Kingdom (-18.3 per cent) and Portugal (-12.6 per cent).
Despite this, 2023 proved to be a great year for Spain, with a production of 509,219 zero and low emission vehicles, of which 323,255 were electrified.
This represents 13.2 per cent of total production and an increase of 21.3 per cent compared to the previous year.
ANFAC highlights that in the last five years, the production of electrified cars in Spain has increased from 16,000 in 2019 to more than 300,000 in 2023.
In this context, the Commercial Director at Elcome warns:
“The 21.3 per cent growth must be interpreted in relative terms, since it represents a percentage on a production base that, to date, has been quite low.”
In terms of export data, in 2023, Spain exported 86 per cent of its automobile production, meaning that less than 20 per cent of manufacturing remained in the country.
Although China is not its main foreign sales market, the country could be significantly affected by the protectionist and tariff measures imposed by Europe towards the Asian nation.
In fact, during the first months of the year, exports to Asia already experienced a significant decline of more than 60 per cent.
