Automotive industry in Slovakia
Since 2007, Slovakia has been the world's largest producer of cars per capita,[1] with a total of 1 080 000 in 2018[2] (1,001,520 in 2017 and 1,040,000 in 2016)[3] cars manufactured alone in a country with 5 million people. With production of more than a million cars in 2016, Slovakia was 20th in the list of worldwide car production by country and the 7th largest car producer in the European Union. Car manufacture is the largest industry in Slovakia with a share of 12% on the Slovak GDP in 2013[4] which was 41% of industrial production and 26% of Slovakia's export. 80,000 people were employed in the automotive industry in 2014. 1,500 people were employed when Jaguar Land Rover started production in Nitra in 2018.[5]
History
The "Drndička" was the first automobile to be fully constructed in Slovakia and was constructed by the blacksmith Michal Majer in 1913.[6] He copied a car owned by the Bulgarian King who was, at that time, travelling through Slovakia.
After World War I Slovakia became a part of the newly formed Czechoslovakia. In the Czech part, the industry had been influenced mostly by Germans - see for example the dispute about the design of the Tatra T97 by Hans Ledwinka vs the Volkswagen Beetle design by Ferdinand Porsche, who was also born in Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic). The long tradition of Czech car production started in 1897, when the first Czech car (Präsident) was produced in the factory in Kopřivnice (Nesselsdorfer Wagenbaufabriksgesellschaft later Tatra), followed by the first lorry in 1898. Škoda Auto (and its predecessors) is the world's fifth oldest company producing cars and has an unbroken history. The first Škoda motorcycle made its debut in 1899 and in 1905 the firm started manufacturing automobiles. Even before World War II the automotive industry was a significant and advanced part of the economy of the former Czechoslovakia.
Post-war socialist Czechoslovakia restored auto manufacturing with the original brands and became the second largest (after Poland) in the Soviet block outside the USSR. The Czechoslovakian producers
Companies in Slovakia, including
However, following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993, the
The truck manufacturing company Tanax Trucks was established in 2000 in Bánovce nad Bebravou, as a successor to the town's established Tatra truck factory. Several bus manufacturing companies emerged during the 1990s, including
Manufacturers
Slovakia is one of the significant European (7th) and World's (20th) automakers, having an annual output of more than 1 million and exports to more than 100 countries. Passenger car manufacturers in Slovakia currently include 4 automobile production plants:
Domestically owned automotive manufacturers specializing in smaller volume serial production include Tanax Trucks in Bánovce nad Bebravou (focused primarily on military trucks for armed forces contracts) and Troliga Bus in Levoča (focused on urban transit and intercity buses and coaches). The small independent company K-1 Engineering specializes in hand-crafted concept sportscars, their K-1 Attack model.
The company Way Industries a.s. (Inc.), headquartered in Krupina, focuses on the design and manufacturing of construction vehicles (Locust brand loaders and small excavators) and military engineering vehicles (Božena mine-flails and other unmanned remote-controlled vehicles), for the domestic market and exports to the pan-European market.[7][8][9] [10]
Current manufacturers and models
Volkswagen Bratislava Plant
Small car line: Volkswagen's Up family:
Regular car line: VW luxury SUVs: Volkswagen Touareg, Audi Q7, Porsche Cayenne
Peugeot 207 (manufactured since 2006)[11]
Citroën C3 Picasso (manufactured since mid-2008)
Peugeot 208 (manufactured since November 2011)[12]
Žilina Plant
Kia Sportage third generation (since 2010)
Jaguar Land Rover Slovakia Nitra plant
-
Peugeot 208 produced by PSA Peugeot Citroën in Trnava
-
Kia Cee'd produced at Kia's Žilinaplant
-
Land Rover Discovery, a model produced at the Jaguar Land Rover plant in Nitra
Troliga Bus Levoča plant
City buses: Leonis, Leonis Electric, Sirius, Scorpius
Intercity buses: Pegasus, Fenix, Fenix CNG, Taurus
-
Troliga Bus Pegasus, an intercity coach model
-
Troliga Bus Sirius, a domestic double-decker bus design
Defunct manufacturers
Passenger cars and vans
- Bratislava Automotive Works (BAZ), Bratislava(1971–1998)
- Trnava Automotive Works (TAZ), Trnava (1973–1999)
- K-1 Engineering, Bratislava, model K-1 Attack
Buses
- Novoplan, Lučenec (1996–2019)
- Granus, part of LIAZ Zvolen (1997–2003)
- SlovBus, Nové Mesto nad Váhom, Detva (1997–2011)
References
- ^ "Slovak Car Industry Production Almost Doubled in 2007". Industryweek.com. 9 April 2008. Archived from the original on 2017-10-10. Retrieved 16 October 2010.
- ^ "Na Slovensku sa v roku 2018 vyrobil rekordný počet áut". Automagazin.sk - Novinky, testy, recenzie (in Slovak). 2019-01-13. Retrieved 2019-05-07.
- ^ "Slovakia - Motor vehicle production 2016". countryeconomy.com. Retrieved 2017-11-21.
- ^ Rosival, Štefan (27 Jan 2014). "Industry sector which the crises bypassed (Priemysel, ktorý obišla kríza)". automagazin.sk. Automagazin. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
- ^ "Jaguar Land Rover chooses Slovakia for new plant". jaguarlandrover. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
- ^ "Najstaršia automobilka na Slovensku bola v Psiaroch (The oldest Slovak car production facility was in Psiare)". Peter Ižold. 23 September 2010. Retrieved 19 September 2014.
- ^ "Way Industries". Way.sk. Retrieved 8 February 2023.
- ^ "Zoznam.sk listing - Way Industries a.s." Zoznam.sk. Retrieved 8 February 2023.
- ^ "Finstat.sk listing - Way Industries a.s." Finstat.sk. Retrieved 8 February 2023.
- ^ "Business Register of the Slovak Republic - Way Industries a.s." ORSR.sk (Business Register of the Slovak Republic). Retrieved 8 February 2023.
- ^ "Site de Trnava". PSA. Retrieved 2015-09-26.
- ^ "Professional MBA Automotive Industry: Factory visit and workshop at PSA Peugeot Citroën in Trnava". Automotive.tuwien.ac.at. 2012-03-30. Retrieved 2012-09-29.
External links
- Slovak Society of Automotive Engineers (SAITS)
- Professional mba Automotive Industry
- Faculty of Mechanical Engineering STU in Bratislava
- In Slovak only: Slovak automotive industry association / Zväz automobilového priemyslu SR (ZAP)
- In Slovak only: Department of automobiles, ships and combustion engines of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering STU in Bratislava / Oddelenie automobilov, lodí a spaľovacích motorov (UDTK)