Spain becomes Europe's second largest car manufacturer

SPAIN has become Europe’s second-biggest car manufacturer after Germany.

Flexible labour laws and a vast network of local parts suppliers have encouraged companies like Volkswagen and Daimler to ramp up their production capacity, with the former investing €1 billion into its Pamplona plant this year.

The car sector accounted for 8.7% of Spain’s gross domestic product last year, up from 5.2% in 2005, according to ANFAC, the country’s association of car manufacturers.

It now employs 9% of Spain’s workforce and produced a record 2.7 million vehicles last year, 80% of which were exported.

The boost has been linked to reforms brought in by the PP in 2012 which made it easier for employers to lay off longtime employees and weakened collective bargaining agreements.

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Laurence Dollimore

Laurence Dollimore is a Spanish-speaking, NCTJ-trained journalist with almost a decade’s worth of experience.
The London native has a BA in International Relations from the University of Leeds and and an MA in the same subject from Queen Mary University London.
He earned his gold star diploma in multimedia journalism at the prestigious News Associates in London in 2016, before immediately joining the Olive Press at their offices on the Costa del Sol.
After a five-year stint, Laurence returned to the UK to work as a senior reporter at the Mail Online, where he remained for two years before coming back to the Olive Press as Digital Editor in 2023.
He continues to work for the biggest newspapers in the UK, who hire him to investigate and report on stories in Spain.
These include the Daily Mail, Telegraph, Mail Online, Mail on Sunday and The Sun and Sun Online.
He has broken world exclusives on everything from the Madeleine McCann case to the anti-tourism movement in Tenerife.

GOT A STORY? Contact newsdesk@theolivepress.es or call +34 951 273 575 Twitter: @olivepress

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