When the year began we saw that car sales had fallen by 5.4% in 2022. An unremarkable figure that was due to factors such as the war in Ukraine or the shortage of components, which led to inflation and price increases. However, it was not all bad news, because last year increased car production in Spain. It is something positive for the national industry, which is one of the most important and currently represents just over a tenth of GDP.
Last year the Spanish factories produced a total of 2,219,462 cars, which represents a growth of 5.8% compared to the data for 2021. It is worth noting a very prolific end of 2022 thanks to the fact that the month of December closed with a production of 175,245 units, an increase of 18.9% compared to the same month of the previous year. This evolution, which is (almost) directly proportional to the number of sales, is due to a improvement of raw material flows and to an increased availability of microchips.
The highlight was the passenger car production, which takes the vast majority with 1,785,432 units and a growth of 7.4%. Commercial vehicles, however, decreased slightly. They achieved 434,030 units, which is 0.4% less than in 2021. Despite ending the year with a positive balance, manufacturers warn that they still suffer from intermittent supply in factories and a new bottleneck due to vehicle distribution problems. Those factors could mark 2023.
As we saw, production is not coordinated with sales in Spain. In fact, more and more cars are exported to the rest of the countries. In 2022, no less than 1,881,164 cars were shipped, which is already 3.3% more than in 2021. December was also especially positive and helped round off the year with an increase of 16.2% by exporting 148,434 units. The 69.4% of cars are destined for Europewith France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and Turkey as the main importers.
And if we focus on the energy source, we see that the electrified vehicles They have been the ones that have grown the most within those produced in Spain. In 2022 they increased by 31.9% and are already at 319,605 units. Its share is also growing and it is clear that it is only the beginning of this trend, since national factories are preparing to make more and more electric.
Source: ANFAC
