Lack of supplies slows vehicle production by 18% | The truth

In any case, the annual balance is not positive, since in the first months of the year the cumulative figure registers a slight decrease of 0.5% compared to 2023, with 654,825 units produced, a figure 13.5% lower than in 2019, year before the pandemic.

According to José López-Tafall, general director of Anfac, “we observed worryingly how in March the problems with the supply of components in some factories are having a dent in production figures. A drop of 20% in the last month that undermines the good pace with which we closed last year. We will have to wait to see how the reception of materials behaves this month to evaluate its importance.”

By type of vehicle, the manufacture of passenger cars was 160,439 units in March, 12.1% less than in the same month of 2023. For its part, production during the third month of the year of commercial and industrial vehicles has experienced a sharp drop of 36.4% compared to the same month last year, with a total of 34,813 units.

During the month of March, the production of zero and low emission vehicles (electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids, conventional hybrids, natural gas and LPG) increased by 3.6% compared to the same period in 2023, with a total of 43,347 units , which adds up to 22.2% of the March production quota.

Regarding the manufacturing share of electrified vehicles, last month it reached 12.5% ​​of total production, 0.8 percentage points more compared to the same month in 2023. A total of 24,451 electrified vehicles were manufactured in March, which which represents a decrease of 12% compared to the same month last year. Of these, 24,021 units correspond to electrified passenger cars (BEV pure electric and PHEV plug-in hybrids), which increase by 14.2% compared to March 2023.

In the accumulated year, electrified vehicles represent 10.4% of total production, with 68,075 units, which represents a decrease of 21.2% compared to the same month of the previous year.

In this regard, José López-Tafall considers that “the drop in the production of electrified vehicles is bad news. A situation that only warns that there is little point in manufacturing and attracting electrified vehicles to our factories if they are not sold in our market. But we cannot forget that electrification is the commitment of the European Union and the Spanish government to comply with the obligation to reduce emissions.

For the manager, “electrified vehicles are all available. But either we work to promote a framework that accelerates the demand for electrified vehicles by individuals and companies by improving purchase aid, taxation and accelerating the development of publicly accessible charging infrastructure, or we will face a situation with a declining market that will lead to a decrease in production and the risk of not meeting our decarbonization objectives. The sector alone cannot do everything. The current market and production figures show that it is necessary to act immediately with forceful measures.

Exports

Regarding exports, in March a total of 174,138 units were shipped outside our borders, 16.8% less than in the same period of 2023. The annual cumulative figure indicates that during the first quarter of the year exports experienced a drop of 1.8%, with 579,988 units exported.

Exports to the European continent represented 92.7% of vehicle shipments last month, which represents an increase of 2.5 percentage points in the share compared to the same month of the previous year. Likewise, the volume of units delivered to European destinations decreased by 14.5% compared to the same month of the previous year.

In the Top 5 destinations, France occupies first position. They are followed by Germany and the United Kingdom in second and third place, respectively. Particularly noteworthy are the falls in Belgium (-45.2% to seventh place) and Portugal (-28.2%), which now occupies eighth place. In contrast, Mexico experiences a large increase of 169.6%.