Europe EV Manufacturing Statistics 2026
By Axis Intelligence Research
Co-author: Aidan Jad, EV & Clean Energy | Last updated: September 10, 2026 | License: CC BY 4.0
The European Union built 11,470,235 cars in 2025 — 688,431 fewer than in 2023 — and roughly 3.2 million of them were electric. In the same year, Axis Intelligence Research finds the EU’s car trade with China swung from a €1.43 billion surplus to a €5.38 billion deficit, a €6.81 billion reversal in twelve months.
Quick Answer
Europe’s car factories are converting to electric faster than they are shrinking. The EU produced nearly 3.2 million electric cars in 2025, up 30% on the IEA’s count, inside a total car output that was flat at 11.47 million. Axis Intelligence Research estimates that electric models made up about 28% of EU car production in 2025, and that planned EU EV assembly capacity for 2030 is roughly 2.1 times projected EU demand. The pressure point is not assembly. It is cells, cost and China.
Key Findings
- According to ACEA, publishing S&P Global Mobility data, EU passenger car production reached 11,470,235 units in 2025, up 0.3% on 2024 but 5.66% below 2023.
- Axis Intelligence Research finds that the EU’s new-car trade balance with China moved from a €1,432 million surplus in 2024 to a €5,382 million deficit in 2025, on Eurostat trade values published by ACEA.
- Axis Intelligence Research estimates that electric cars accounted for about 28% of EU car production in 2025, combining the IEA’s 3.2 million EV output figure with ACEA’s 11.47 million total.
- Axis Intelligence Research finds that Italy alone accounted for 44.8% of the EU’s net car-output loss between 2023 and 2025, as Italian production fell from 546,440 to 237,975 units.
- On the Axis EV-Era Production Resilience Index (EPRI), Germany scores 85.2 and Italy 0.0, making Germany the most resilient of the EU’s ten largest car-producing countries and Italy the least.
How Many Cars and EVs Does Europe Produce in 2026?
The most recent complete production year is 2025. ACEA’s Economic and Market Report for full-year 2025, published in April 2026, puts EU passenger car output at 11,470,235 units — 14.6% of global production, against China’s 29,426,897 units (37.4%).
| Region | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Change 2024–25 | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| European Union | 12,158,666 | 11,440,621 | 11,470,235 | +0.3% | ACEA / S&P Global Mobility |
| Europe (incl. UK, Türkiye, Russia) | 15,086,144 | 14,419,136 | 14,377,017 | −0.3% | ACEA / S&P Global Mobility |
| United Kingdom | 907,551 | 778,385 | 713,079 | −8.4% | ACEA / S&P Global Mobility |
| China | 25,418,971 | 26,664,393 | 29,426,897 | +10.4% | ACEA / S&P Global Mobility |
| World | 75,840,123 | 75,494,236 | 78,661,926 | +4.2% | ACEA / S&P Global Mobility |
Electric output tells a very different story from the flat total. The International Energy Agency’s Global EV Outlook 2026 manufacturing chapter reports that EU electric car production rose 30% to nearly 3.2 million in 2025, keeping the EU the world’s second-largest EV producer behind China’s 16 million. Fewer than 20% of the EU’s electric output came from non-European groups, chiefly Volvo Cars (owned by Geely), Tesla and Ford’s European plants.
What share of European car production is electric?
Axis Intelligence Research estimates that electric cars made up about 28% of EU car production in 2025. The calculation divides the IEA’s EV production figure (nearly 3.2 million) by ACEA’s total (11,470,235), giving 27.9%. Both cover passenger cars in the EU27 for calendar 2025; the IEA figure includes plug-in hybrids and is itself rounded, which is why we publish the result as “about 28%” rather than to the decimal. For comparison, battery-electric cars took 17.4% of EU registrations in 2025, according to ACEA — a gap that exists partly because EU plants export electric cars, more than 1 million of them in 2025 on the IEA’s count.
Aidan Jad: The flat 11.47 million hides a line-by-line conversion that is running at speed. Of the thirteen EV manufacturing projects the IEA tracked as announced in the EU in 2025, only five were greenfield — the rest are existing plants retooling. That is the least glamorous and most important fact in European EV manufacturing: the transition is happening inside brownfield halls with existing workforces, stamping presses and supplier parks, not on fresh concrete. It is cheaper and faster. It also means every plant that doesn’t win an EV platform allocation is a plant with a countdown on it.
axis-intelligence.com/europe-ev-manufacturing-statistics/
Which European Countries Produce the Most Cars?
Production is concentrated in a handful of member states. Axis Intelligence Research calculates that Germany and Spain together produced 50.56% of EU cars in 2025, and the ten largest producing countries produced 94.94%.
| Rank | Country | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Change 2024–25 | Share of EU 2025 | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Germany | 3,957,061 | 3,941,457 | 4,032,756 | +2.3% | 35.2% | ACEA / S&P Global Mobility |
| 2 | Spain | 1,859,355 | 1,872,580 | 1,766,325 | −5.7% | 15.4% | ACEA / S&P Global Mobility |
| 3 | Czechia | 1,397,631 | 1,448,908 | 1,440,985 | −0.5% | 12.6% | ACEA / S&P Global Mobility |
| 4 | Slovakia | 1,075,379 | 993,088 | 1,073,050 | +8.1% | 9.4% | ACEA / S&P Global Mobility |
| 5 | France | 970,183 | 854,254 | 986,275 | +15.5% | 8.6% | ACEA / S&P Global Mobility |
| 6 | Romania | 506,099 | 475,808 | 452,255 | −5.0% | 3.9% | ACEA / S&P Global Mobility |
| 7 | Hungary | 508,734 | 436,273 | 411,943 | −5.6% | 3.6% | ACEA / S&P Global Mobility |
| 8 | Sweden | 285,310 | 284,301 | 247,972 | −12.8% | 2.2% | ACEA / S&P Global Mobility |
| 9 | Portugal | 220,100 | 236,023 | 240,400 | +1.9% | 2.1% | ACEA / S&P Global Mobility |
| 10 | Italy | 546,440 | 308,822 | 237,975 | −22.9% | 2.1% | ACEA / S&P Global Mobility |
Why did Italy’s car production collapse?
Italy produced 546,440 cars in 2023 and 237,975 in 2025 — a 56.45% fall in two years that took it from sixth to tenth among EU producers. Axis Intelligence Research finds that Italy’s lost 308,465 units equal 44.8% of the EU’s entire net output decline of 688,431 units over the same period. Hungary (−96,791) and Spain (−93,030) were the next largest contributors. ACEA’s report records the 2025 Italian decline as the sharpest in the bloc without attributing it to a single cause, and we do not assign one here; the country is almost entirely dependent on one domestic group’s product cadence, which makes its output unusually sensitive to model gaps.
Introducing EPRI: The Axis EV-Era Production Resilience Index
A production table ranks countries by size. It does not tell a supplier, an investor or a regional government which manufacturing bases are holding up while the industry retools. To answer that, Axis Intelligence Research built the Axis EV-Era Production Resilience Index (EPRI).
EPRI scores the EU’s ten largest car-producing countries from 0 to 100 on three components, all computed from ACEA / S&P Global Mobility production counts:
| Component | Weight | What it measures | Input |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scale | 40% | Weight of the national base in EU output | Country 2025 output ÷ EU 2025 output |
| Momentum | 35% | Direction in the latest year | 2025 vs 2024 output change |
| Durability | 25% | Whether the base held through the 2023–25 downturn | 2025 vs 2023 output change |
Each component is min-max normalised across the ten countries, then weighted and summed. The full formula and anchors are in the Methodology section; every component value ships in the CSV.
European car production resilience ranking 2026
| Rank | Country | EPRI | Scale (share of EU) | Momentum (1-yr) | Durability (2-yr) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Germany | 85.2 | 35.16% | +2.32% | +1.91% | Axis calculation on ACEA data |
| 2 | France | 65.0 | 8.60% | +15.45% | +1.66% | Axis calculation on ACEA data |
| 3 | Slovakia | 58.5 | 9.36% | +8.05% | −0.22% | Axis calculation on ACEA data |
| 4 | Czechia | 55.8 | 12.56% | −0.55% | +3.10% | Axis calculation on ACEA data |
| 5 | Spain | 51.4 | 15.40% | −5.67% | −5.00% | Axis calculation on ACEA data |
| 6 | Portugal | 47.6 | 2.10% | +1.85% | +9.22% | Axis calculation on ACEA data |
| 7 | Romania | 36.1 | 3.94% | −4.95% | −10.64% | Axis calculation on ACEA data |
| 8 | Hungary | 31.9 | 3.59% | −5.58% | −19.03% | Axis calculation on ACEA data |
| 9 | Sweden | 25.9 | 2.16% | −12.78% | −13.09% | Axis calculation on ACEA data |
| 10 | Italy | 0.0 | 2.07% | −22.94% | −56.45% | Axis calculation on ACEA data |
Three readings stand out.
France at 2nd, on 8.6% of EU output. France’s 15.5% output rebound in 2025 was the strongest in the top ten, which lifts it above Czechia and Spain despite a smaller base. Its two-year durability is barely positive — the 2025 recovery made up for a weak 2024 rather than building new ground.
Spain at 5th, the EU’s second-largest producer. Spain scores well on scale and poorly on direction: output fell in 2025 and sits 5% below 2023. For the country that makes 15.4% of EU cars, that combination is the one to watch in the 2026 figures.
Hungary at 8th, despite being Europe’s most-cited EV investment destination. Hungarian car output fell 19.03% between 2023 and 2025 even as it attracted the CATL Debrecen cell plant and BYD’s Szeged car plant. EPRI measures output already produced; Hungary’s new capacity has not yet reached the production counts. If BYD Szeged ramps as announced, Hungary is the country whose score can move most in the next reading.
Aidan Jad: Read EPRI with the investment table below open next to it. The countries at the bottom are not the countries being abandoned — Hungary and Spain are receiving the two largest Chinese-linked battery projects in the bloc. What the index captures is the gap between the plants that exist and the plants that are coming. A combustion line in Kecskemét or Győr and a cell line in Debrecen employ different people with different skills, and the bottom half of this table is where that handover is least complete.
Is Europe Losing the Car Trade War With China?
On value, the EU now runs a deficit with China in new cars. Eurostat data in the ACEA report show EU car exports to China fell 43% to €8.3 billion in 2025 while imports from China rose to €13.7 billion.
| Flow (EU ↔ China, new cars) | 2024 | 2025 | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| EU exports to China, value | €14,627M | €8,342M | ACEA / Eurostat |
| EU imports from China, value | €13,195M | €13,724M | ACEA / Eurostat |
| EU–China balance, value | +€1,432M | −€5,382M | Axis calculation |
| EU imports from China, volume | 769,935 | 1,006,188 | ACEA / Eurostat |
| EU exports to China, volume | ~279,271 (derived) | 159,743 | ACEA / Eurostat; 2024 derived |
| Import-to-export ratio, volume | 2.8 : 1 | 6.3 : 1 | Axis calculation |
Axis Intelligence Research finds that for every EU-built car shipped to China in 2025, 6.3 Chinese-built cars entered the EU, against 2.8 a year earlier. The 2024 export volume is back-calculated from ACEA’s stated 42.8% decline; we flag it as derived in the dataset.
These are all-powertrain trade flows, not EV-only. The EV-specific picture, from the IEA, points the same way: EU electric car imports rose about 35% to more than 900,000 in 2025, with China supplying almost 60%, while EU EV exports passed 1 million. The EU remained a net EV exporter overall — its deficit is bilateral with China, not global. ACEA also reports that cars made in China reached 7% of EU sales in 2025, up from 5%.
For who is selling those vehicles and at what share, see our breakdown of Chinese EV market share in Europe.
Aidan Jad: The €6.8 billion swing is two stories stacked on top of each other. One is Chinese brands landing in Europe. The other, which gets less attention, is European carmakers losing China as an export market for premium combustion cars — the 43% drop in export value is the bigger half of the swing. That matters for EV manufacturing because those China margins were a large part of what funded European battery and platform programmes. The cash that built the last generation of plants is shrinking just as the capital bill for the next generation arrives.
Does Europe Make Its Own EV Batteries?
Partly, and mostly through Asian-owned plants. The European Parliamentary Research Service’s January 2025 briefing on the EU battery industry records European battery production of nearly 100 GWh in 2023 against installed capacity of 167 GWh, with Korean companies accounting for three-quarters of European production capacity.
| Metric | Value | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| European battery output | ~100 GWh | 2023 | EPRS (European Parliament) |
| European installed cell capacity | 167 GWh | 2023 | EPRS, citing European Battery Alliance |
| Announced gigafactory projects | 30 | May 2024 | EPRS, citing European Battery Alliance |
| Announced 2030 pipeline capacity | 1.3 TWh | 2030 | EPRS, citing European Battery Alliance |
| EU non-binding 2030 capacity target (NZIA) | 550 GWh | 2030 | EPRS |
| Li-ion pack price, Europe vs China | €163 vs €116 per kWh | 2024 | EPRS |
| Chinese producers’ share of EU EV battery market | Over half | 2025 | IEA |
Two ratios follow from the EPRS figures. Axis Intelligence Research calculates that Europe’s installed cell capacity in 2023 equalled 12.8% of the 1.3 TWh announced for 2030, and that output of roughly 100 GWh against 167 GWh installed implies utilisation near 60%. The pack-price gap works out to European packs costing 40.5% more than Chinese packs.
The IEA’s battery chapter of Global EV Outlook 2026 adds the market-share view: Chinese producers supplied over half of the EU’s EV battery market in 2025, almost double their 2023 share, and China made over 80% of the world’s battery cells.
Europe EV battery gigafactories to watch in 2026
| Plant | Country | Owner | Capacity | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PowerCo Salzgitter | Germany | Volkswagen Group | 20 GWh initial, 40 GWh max | Cell production started 17 Dec 2025; ramping through 2026 | Volkswagen Group |
| CATL–Stellantis Zaragoza | Spain | 50/50 JV | Up to 50 GWh | €4.1bn investment; production targeted by end-2026 | Stellantis |
| CATL Debrecen | Hungary | CATL | 40 GWh initial | Company said capacity fully booked; cell start scheduled early 2026 | Debrecen Sun, reporting CATL |
Volkswagen’s release states that 20 GWh supplies approximately 250,000 electric vehicles — an implied 80 kWh per vehicle, useful as a rule of thumb when reading any European gigafactory announcement.
Aidan Jad: A gigawatt-hour of nameplate is a promise; a gigawatt-hour of shipped cells is a product. The 60% implied utilisation is the number that matters, and the IEA notes new plants can take more than five years to reach near-nominal output. Northvolt raised US$15 billion, according to the EPRS briefing, before filing for bankruptcy in November 2024. Europe does not lack announced capacity. It lacks yield, and yield is learned on the line.
How Much Is Europe Investing in EV and Battery Manufacturing?
Public support now runs through several instruments with different legal forms — state aid, grants and interest-free loans. Axis Intelligence Research does not add them into a single total, because a grant, a state-aid ceiling and a loan are not the same euro. They are published side by side instead.
| Instrument | Amount | Type | Date | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IPCEI batteries (first) | €3.2bn | State aid approved | 2019 | EPRS |
| IPCEI EuBatIn (second) | €2.9bn | State aid approved | 2021 | EPRS |
| Private investment expected from both IPCEIs | €14bn | Leveraged private capital | 2021 | EPRS |
| Innovation Fund IF24 Battery | €643M | Grants signed, 5 projects | Nov 2025 | CINEA |
| Battery Booster Facility | Up to €1.5bn | Interest-free loans, max €500M/project | Call open to 30 Sep 2026 | European Commission, DG GROW |
| CATL–Stellantis Zaragoza | €4.1bn | Private JV investment | Dec 2024 | Stellantis |
Demand for the IF24 Battery grants exceeded supply: the European Commission reported 14 applications requesting €1.6 billion against a €1 billion budget. The five signed projects are expected to enter operation between 2027 and 2029.
The Battery Booster’s eligibility rules reveal what Brussels thinks the bottleneck is: projects must already be in ramp-up, must be the applicant’s first full commercial-scale EV cell plant anywhere, and must plan at least 10 GWh a year. That targets exactly the yield problem, not the construction problem.
On the private side, ACEA reports the automotive industry invests €84.6 billion a year in R&D, 34% of the EU total.
How Many Jobs Depend on Europe’s Car Factories?
According to ACEA, 13.6 million Europeans work in the auto industry directly and indirectly, 6.9% of all EU jobs, and about 2.5 million work in automotive manufacturing, 8.1% of EU manufacturing employment.
New EV and battery plants are hiring at a scale measured in thousands per site:
| Plant | Workforce | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| CATL Debrecen (Hungary) | Over 1,000; targeting 1,500 in Q1 2026 | Dec 2025 | Debrecen Sun, reporting CATL |
| BYD Szeged (Hungary) | 960 | Jan 2026 | electrive, reporting Szeged mayor |
| CATL–Stellantis Zaragoza (Spain) | 3,000 direct jobs targeted | Nov 2025 | electrive, citing Reuters |
Set against 2.5 million manufacturing jobs, those plants are significant locally and small nationally. The arithmetic of the transition is that each new battery or EV plant adds jobs in the low thousands while restructuring at incumbent plants moves in the same order of magnitude — often in different regions. We cover announced reductions separately in our Europe auto industry job cuts statistics.
Are Chinese Carmakers Building EV Factories in Europe?
Yes, and slower than first announced. BYD began trial production at its passenger car plant in Szeged, Hungary, in January 2026, with 960 staff and a planned capacity of 200,000 vehicles a year according to the city’s mayor, as reported by electrive. In June 2026, Hungary Today, citing Világgazdaság, reported that series output had slipped to the fourth quarter of 2026.
Chinese capital is also arriving through battery joint ventures rather than car plants — the CATL–Stellantis Zaragoza project is the largest example. The IEA notes the EU’s proposed Industrial Accelerator Act would scrutinise foreign investments above €100 million in strategic sectors, including EVs and batteries, from countries holding more than 40% of global capacity, with conditions such as local workforce shares and joint ventures. For the price effect of locally built Chinese models, see our Europe EV prices analysis.
Will Europe Have Too Many EV Factories by 2030?
On current plans, yes. The IEA estimates EU EV manufacturing capacity — dedicated and dual combustion/electric plants — could reach 15 million units by 2030, against EU EV demand of 7 million in its Stated Policies Scenario. Axis Intelligence Research calculates that this puts planned EU EV assembly capacity at 2.1 times projected 2030 demand.
The surplus is real only on paper. Dual plants count their full capacity, most of it still building combustion or hybrid cars, and the IEA expects imports to keep covering about a quarter of EU demand through 2035. The more binding question for 2030 is the proposed “made in EU” rules: the IEA summarises the Industrial Accelerator Act’s requirement that eligible cars be assembled in the EU with at least 70% EU-origin components by value (excluding the battery), and battery rules that require EU-origin cells.
Aidan Jad: Overcapacity in assembly and shortage in cells can coexist, and on these numbers they do. A plant that can bolt together two cars for every one Europe is expected to buy, feeding on cells that cost 40% more than the Chinese equivalent, is not a strong position — it is a utilisation problem waiting for a price war. The plants that survive 2030 will be the ones with a cell supply they don’t have to import and a platform that sells outside the EU.
For the demand side these plants depend on, see our hub on Europe EV statistics, which ranks all 27 EU markets on the Axis Electrification Momentum Index.
Methodology
Collection. Production, trade, employment and R&D figures come from ACEA’s Economic and Market Report, Full year 2025 (April 2026), which publishes S&P Global Mobility production data and Eurostat trade data; 2025 figures are marked provisional by ACEA. Electric car production, trade and capacity projections come from the IEA’s Global EV Outlook 2026. Battery capacity and public-funding history come from the European Parliamentary Research Service briefing PE 767.214. Funding calls come from European Commission pages (CINEA, DG CLIMA, DG GROW). Plant data come from company releases (Volkswagen Group, Stellantis) or, where no company release was retrievable, from named trade press reporting company or official statements, flagged is_primary = no in the dataset. All sources were retrieved on 10 September 2026.
Cross-source calculations.
- EV share of EU production = IEA EV production (~3.2M) ÷ ACEA EU car production (11,470,235) = 27.9%, published as “about 28%” because the numerator is rounded at source.
- EU–China trade balance = EU exports to China − EU imports from China, in € million, Eurostat via ACEA.
- 2024 export volume to China = 159,743 ÷ (1 − 0.428) = 279,271 (derived from ACEA’s stated −42.8% change).
- Italy’s share of EU output loss = (546,440 − 237,975) ÷ (12,158,666 − 11,470,235) = 44.8%.
- Capacity-to-demand = IEA 15M ÷ IEA 7M = 2.1.
- Battery pipeline and utilisation ratios use EPRS figures only (167 ÷ 1,300; ~100 ÷ 167).
EPRI formula. For each of the ten largest EU producers:
- Scale = country 2025 output ÷ EU 2025 output
- Momentum = 2025 output ÷ 2024 output − 1
- Durability = 2025 output ÷ 2023 output − 1
Each is min-max normalised to 0–100 across the ten countries. Anchors for this reading: Scale 2.07% to 35.16%; Momentum −22.94% to +15.45%; Durability −56.45% to +9.22%.
EPRI = 0.40 × Scale_n + 0.35 × Momentum_n + 0.25 × Durability_n
Scale carries the most weight because a large base absorbs shocks that would close a smaller one; momentum outweighs durability because the latest year is the best available signal for supplier and investment decisions. EPRI covers all-powertrain passenger car output, because ACEA does not publish EV output by country. Min-max scoring means a bottom score of 0.0 marks the weakest of the ten, not zero production.
Scope. Passenger cars only unless stated (the IEA electric truck figure is labelled). “Europe” in battery figures follows the EPRS source definition; “EU” figures cover the EU27.
About This Dataset
europe-ev-manufacturing-statistics.csv contains 187 rows covering every figure on this page: EU and country car production 2023–2025, EU–China and global trade flows, EV production and trade, battery capacity, public funding instruments, plant capacities and workforces, and all EPRI components, scores and ranks. Each row carries source_org, source_document, source_url, retrieved_date, is_primary, axis_calculated and, for calculated rows, a method_note with the formula.
Licence: CC BY 4.0 — free to reuse with attribution.
Mirrors: Hugging Face, Kaggle, GitHub.
Cite This Research
APA — Axis Intelligence Research. (2026). Europe EV manufacturing statistics 2026: Car plants, gigafactories, jobs and the China trade flip. Axis Intelligence. https://axis-intelligence.com/europe-ev-manufacturing-statistics/
MLA — Axis Intelligence Research. “Europe EV Manufacturing Statistics 2026: Car Plants, Gigafactories, Jobs and the China Trade Flip.” Axis Intelligence, 10 Sept. 2026, axis-intelligence.com/europe-ev-manufacturing-statistics/.
Chicago — Axis Intelligence Research. “Europe EV Manufacturing Statistics 2026: Car Plants, Gigafactories, Jobs and the China Trade Flip.” Axis Intelligence, September 10, 2026. https://axis-intelligence.com/europe-ev-manufacturing-statistics/.
Last updated: September 10, 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
Which European country builds the most electric cars?
ACEA does not publish EV output by country, so no official per-country EV production ranking exists for 2025. Germany is by far the EU’s largest car producer overall, with 4,032,756 units and 35.2% of EU output in 2025, and scores highest on the Axis EV-Era Production Resilience Index at 85.2.
How many electric cars were made in the EU in 2025?
Nearly 3.2 million, up 30% on 2024, according to the IEA’s Global EV Outlook 2026. That figure includes plug-in hybrids. Axis Intelligence Research estimates it represents about 28% of total EU car production of 11,470,235 units.
Does the EU import more cars from China than it exports there?
Yes, by a wide margin. In 2025 the EU imported 1,006,188 new cars from China and exported 159,743, a ratio of 6.3 to 1. By value, the EU moved from a €1.43 billion car-trade surplus with China in 2024 to a €5.38 billion deficit in 2025, on Eurostat data.
Who owns Europe’s battery gigafactories?
Mostly Asian companies. The European Parliamentary Research Service reported that Korean firms held three-quarters of European battery production capacity in 2023, led by LG Energy Solution in Poland. Volkswagen’s PowerCo became the first European carmaker to produce its own cells in Europe when Salzgitter started in December 2025.
Why are European EV batteries more expensive than Chinese ones?
European lithium-ion packs averaged about €163 per kWh against €116 in China, a 40.5% gap on EPRS figures. The IEA attributes more than 40% of the cell production cost gap to lower manufacturing efficiency — yield and scrap rates on new lines — rather than to materials alone.
When will BYD start building cars in Hungary?
BYD began trial production in Szeged in January 2026. Series production, originally expected in the second quarter of 2026, was reported in June 2026 to have slipped to the fourth quarter of 2026. The plant’s planned capacity is 200,000 vehicles a year.
How many people work in Europe’s car industry?
ACEA counts 13.6 million direct and indirect automotive jobs in the EU, 6.9% of all employment, including about 2.5 million in vehicle manufacturing — 8.1% of EU manufacturing jobs.
What EU funding is available for battery factories in 2026?
The main open instrument is the Battery Booster Facility: up to €1.5 billion in interest-free loans, with a maximum of €500 million per project, for EV cell plants of at least 10 GWh already in ramp-up. Applications close on 30 September 2026. The earlier IF24 Battery call awarded €643 million in grants to five projects.
Will “made in EU” rules change where EVs are built?
If adopted as proposed, the Industrial Accelerator Act would tie CO2 credits for small EVs and some corporate-fleet incentives to EU final assembly and at least 70% EU-origin components by value, plus EU-origin battery cells. The proposal still needs agreement from member states, so its final thresholds may change.