The numbers speak clearly and certify Morocco’s overtaking our country and the collapse of the Stellantis factories. While China dominates, Italy slips to tenth place in Europe.
The data is very fresh and shows with its naked brutality the disastrous situation of the Italian car industry. THE’Oicathe Organization Internationale des Constructeurs Automobiles which brings together 34 national trade associations from all over the world, Italy including, published today 22 April the updated numbers relating to vehicle production in 2025 globally. Let’s start with the data regarding the overall production of motor vehicles, i.e. not only cars but also commercial vehicles.
Last year theItaly churned out 474,044 vehicles a decrease of 20% compared to 2024 and even 48% compared to 2019before Covid, when from our factories (in particular those of Stellantis) 915,291 vehicles had left. In other words, in just 7 years the Italian production of motor vehicles has almost halved. No other major European country has suffered such a severe collapse.
The primacy of Germany and the rise of new production centers
The continent’s largest producer remains there Germany with 4.14 million cars (data on vans not available): Berlin managed to close the year up 2% compared to 2024but still down 33% compared to 2019. The second European producer is the Spain with 2.27 million vehicles (minus 4% on 2024) followed by France (1.46 million, up 8%).
They far exceed theItaly also the Czech Republic which last year produced 1.45 million vehicles, as in 2024and the Slovakia with 1.07 million vehicles (+8%). They also did better than us United Kingdom, Poland And Romaniawith 764 thousand, 628 thousand and 545 thousand vehicles respectively. The result is that the country that created famous brands such as Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lance, Ferrari, Lamborghinis, Iveco has slipped to ninth place among vehicle manufacturers in Europe. Not only that: now the Moroccowith 501 thousand cars and commercial vehicles leaving its factories.
China’s dominance and the new global balance
Overall, the 27 countries of the Union plus the United Kingdom produced 17.2 million vehicles last year, down 1% compared to the previous year: all things considered, it didn’t go too badly for an industry struggling with competition from China and with the energy transition. If we look up at the planet, the China remains by far the number one in the sector with 34.5 million vehicles produced in 2025 (double the whole Europe), up 10% compared to 2024 and even 44% compared to 2019.
The United States they come in second place with 10.2 million (minus 3%) followed by Japan with 8.4 million (plus 2 percent). Continuously growingIndia (over 6.4 million vehicles, +8%) while the South Korea it remains on the 4.1 million vehicles produced. Let’s now focus only on cars. Here the situation ofItaly is even more dramatic: in 2025 the factories Stellantis they produced just 237,849 cars, a drop of 23% compared to 2024 and 56% in the pre-Covid period.
The world top ten and the hopes of a national revival
In this sector, where we once competed for European primacy with Germany thanks to successful products like the Pointwe ended up in tenth place among European producers, also beaten by Portugal which manufactured 269,468 cars last year. The world’s top 10 automobile manufacturers 2025 they were there China with 30.2 million cars, followed by Japan (7.2 million), fromIndia (5.3 million), from Germany (4.1 million), from South Korea (3.8 million), from Brazil (1.9 million), from Spain (1.8 million), from Czech Republic (1.4 million), give it United States (1.3 million, a figure which however is distorted by the fact that Americans use pick-ups as cars, which are classified as commercial vehicles) and finally the top ten ends with the Slovakia with just over a million cars produced.
THE’Italy has no longer been in the top ten car manufacturers since 2001, following the advance of Asian countries, South America and of theEastern Europebut also due to the inability to run its factories at full capacity. How did they manage to do (in part) Germany, France And Spain. Hopefully now Stellantis under the guidance of Antonio Filosa manages to relaunch national production with new models. And maybe some Chinese company comes to work in our country: in Spain a plant closed by Nissan was detected and saved by Chery.
