Ford, General Motors, Jaguar Land Rover and China’s Lifan have made the biggest moves affecting Europe’s vehicle assembly footprint in the last year.
In late 2014, Ford shut its factory in Genk, Belgium, and GM stopped making Opels in Bochum, Germany. The moves are aimed at helping both manufacturers to make their European operations profitable after years of financial losses.
JLR, meanwhile, needs to grow to keep up with rising demand. The British automaker has signed a letter of intent to build a new car plant in Slovakia. JLR, which has been part of India's Tata Motors since 2008, will carry out a feasibility study for a factory in Nitra. The aim is to open the plant in 2018 and reach an annual output of up to 300,000 vehicles by 2025.
If JLR decides to construct the plant it would take the total number of car factories in Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic to 15 -- up from nine a decade ago. All of the plants are within a 400km radius of each other.
Chongqing Lifan Industry has started work on an assembly plant in Russia's western state of Lipetsk Oblast. Initially it will assemble up to 60,000 Lifan cars a year from complete knockdown (CKD) kits imported from China, the company has said. Production is scheduled to begin late 2017 or early 2018.
Overall, Volkswagen Group and Renault-Nissan continue to have the largest production footprints in Europe. The two companies have a combined 42 vehicle assembly plants in Europe and Russia, according to data from Automotive News Europe.
This year’s map features the most current data available on more than 140 plants, up from more than 120 last year, based on extensive research by ANE. To find out which vehicles are made where check out ANE’s interactive assembly plant map below.
Sponsored by ElringKlinger, the map is the go-to resource to help stay on top of all of production shifts. ANE is constantly updating the data to reflect the changes taking place at some of the most powerful automakers in the world.
