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Europe

Cars, production and exports from EU countries dropped in five years

Car exports in 2024 are worth 165.2 billion euro, imports 75.9 billion euro

by Davide Madeddu (Il Sole 24 Ore) and Ana Somavilla (El Confidencial, Spain)

15 April 2025

4' min read

The car market is slowing down: in 2024, both car exports and imports will fall, both at EU level and in Italy. Describing this scenario is the Eurostat report analysing the development of the sector in 2024. According to the data, the EU exported 5.4 million cars and imported 4 million. Compared to 2019, the number of exported cars decreased by 13.2% and the number of imported cars by 3.0%.

Exports of 165.2 billion euro

In terms of economic value, 2024 car exports are worth EUR 165.2 billion and imports EUR 75.9 billion, 'resulting in a trade surplus of EUR 89.3 billion'. Most of the cars exported in 2024 were sold between the US and the UK, with values of 38.9 billion euros in the former and 34.3 in the latter. This was followed by China with EUR 14.5 billion, then Turkey with EUR 12.0 billion and Switzerland with EUR 8.5 billion.

Growing exports to Turkey

"Looking at the main export partners between 2019 and 2024, the EU saw the largest increase in car exports to Turkey, up by 364.1 per cent," it goes on to read. In contrast, exports to China suffered the largest drop, decreasing by 22.3 per cent. "As for the imports that characterised the EU countries, at the top of the list of suppliers, with an economic volume of 12.7 billion euros is China, followed by Japan with 12.3 billion. In third place, with EUR 11 billion, is the United Kingdom,followed by Turkey with EUR 9.1 billion and the USA with EUR 8.4 billion.

"From 2019 to 2024," the report continues, "the EU saw the most significant increase in car imports from China, up 1591.3%. On the other hand, imports from the UK saw the biggest drop, down 17.1%."

The cake has shrunk

Andrea Cardinali, director general of Unrae, the association that represents foreign manufacturers operating on the Italian market for passenger cars, commercial and industrial vehicles, buses and caravans and motorhomes, outlines the scenario that concerns the European as well as the Italian market. "In five years, between 2019 and 2024, the European market has lost 18.4%, while in the meantime production has dropped by 20%," he says. "The cake has shrunk and the industry is struggling to hold its own, because the domestic market is the first reference market. We have to keep in mind that many non-European players are also building in Europe'.

The horizon is not exactly rosy

That is not all, as the horizon does not look particularly positive. "The big economic damage for Western manufacturers has occurred in China, and this will probably continue to happen in the coming years,' argues the director. 'The numbers of Chinese manufacturers in Europe are still relatively modest: they have created the biggest problem at home, where they are repossessing the domestic market while pouring their overcapacity into exports. Not only that, 'the sharp reduction in the market share of Western manufacturers in the Chinese market has hurt the Europeans more, and in particular the Germans who were known to be market leaders'.

The American Duty Game

No less important will be the game played by US duties. 'The impact they will have,' the director adds, 'will be due not only and not so much to their direct effect, but to the overall mechanism they are triggering. It will be necessary to understand what countermeasures the EU will actually take, what bilateral agreements individual countries will come up with and how global trade flows will be rebalanced in a system of communicating vessels'.

The Italy chapter

Then there is the chapter concerning Italy. "In the automotive sector, we still have a positive trade balance with non-EU exports of €8.1 billion and non-EU imports of €7.1 billion,' Cardinali adds. 'In this context we boast a surplus of €3.3 billion with the US, which obviously exposes us to the weapon of duties, but a deficit of €700 million with China. A figure that, according to the Unrae executive, could grow in 2025. 'According to our forecasts, it is destined to double or triple because the EU remains a bigger and more open market than the US, and in its regard the Chinese trade strategy sees Italy as a privileged target,' he concludes. 'So far, Italy is in fact, within Europe, among the first three markets targeted, and important distribution networks are being built here. I believe that it will be much harder for us to export to China than for them to penetrate our market'.

The Spanish case

In 2024, the Spanish car market surpassed the one million units sold threshold for the first time since the pre-pandemic period, registering a year-on-year increase of 7.1% to 1.01 million registered vehicles. Against a backdrop of growing demand for sustainable mobility - while the electric car is still struggling to take off - it was non-rechargeable hybrids that topped the list as the year's best-selling technology for the first time. This is what emerges from data released last week by the industry associations Anfac (manufacturers), Faconauto (official dealers) and Ganvam (dealers and workshops).

In 2023, vehicle exports from Spain increased by 14.4%, with a total of 2,211,467 units shipped across the border. However, growth has been hindered by structural and geopolitical factors: the economic crisis, the war in Ukraine, component shortages and - more recently - logistical difficulties related to the Red Sea crisis, caused by the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

"Import figures for the automotive sector in Spain are directly influenced by market demand, which in turn reflects the general economic environment," explained Antonio Cueria, CEO of importarcoches.com, a Spanish company specialising in importing high-end vehicles from Germany and the US. "The purchase of cars, being a luxury good, decreases in times of uncertainty or crisis, as happened in 2008 and is starting to be observed in 2025. Although there was a recovery after the pandemic and some increase in imports, this growth was slower and weaker than in the period before 2020. In addition, factors such as rising interest rates and difficult access to finance have reduced purchasing power, affecting the purchase of new vehicles in particular. Added to this is the general increase in prices in the car market, where the average price of cars has risen significantly, making it even more difficult to buy.

*This article is part of the European collaborative journalism project 'Pulse'.