Car production in the Czech Republic is down, but electric cars are breaking records

The Czech automotive industry entered 2025 with slightly pessimistic figures. In the first quarter, a total of 372,334 road vehicles were produced in domestic plants, which represents a year-on-year decline of 7 %. The vast majority were traditionally passenger cars, which reached an output of 366,510 units. This was announced by the Automotive Industry Association in a press release.

While overall production is declining, the electric vehicle segment is growing significantly. From January to March, 65,063 electrified vehicles were produced, 140.8 % more than in the same period last year. Of this figure, 50,484 are pure battery electric vehicles and 14,579 are plug-in hybrids. The share of EVs in total passenger car production thus rose to 17.7 %.

"March itself became a record month in the number of electric vehicles produced in the Czech Republic. The production ramp-up of new models, in this case the new Skoda Elroq and the modernised Enyaq, always arouses the interest of the market and customers, which is also reflected in the final statistics of domestic production," said the president of the Automotive Industry Association Martin Jahn.

Škoda Auto, the largest domestic manufacturer, produced 236,524 passenger cars in the first quarter, down by 2.8 % year-on-year. Of these, 48,442 were electric models, an increase of almost 282 %. 22,016 of these cars ended up in the domestic market, with the rest going for export. The January start of mass production of the Elroq and the February upgrade of the Enyaq are significant contributors.

A significant decrease is reported by Hyundai in Nosovice, where 71 540 vehicles were produced, which is 18 % less than last year. More than 16,000 electric vehicles were produced here, representing a share of 23 % in total production. The decline was more moderate at Toyota Cologne, where the carmaker produced 58,446 vehicles, with almost 60 % of hybrids of the Yaris model.

The bus segment, on the other hand, recorded an increase - 1,321 buses were produced in the Czech Republic, which is 12.4 % more year-on-year. Of these, 107 were purely electric. The largest number of buses was produced by Iveco CR in Vysoké Mýto, where 1,275 vehicles were produced. In contrast, the manufacturer SOR Libchavy dropped significantly to just 41 units.

Truck manufacturer Tatra Trucks produced 277 vehicles, 31.6 % less than in the same period of the previous year. The decrease was due to a higher share of specialised vehicles with more demanding production.

For motorcycles, Jawa reports production of 169 units, a drop of almost 30 %. Of the trailers and semi-trailers, a total of 4,057 units were produced in the first quarter, mostly by Agados.

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