Portuguese car exports conquer new markets

Portugal is producing more and more cars and for new markets according to the Portuguese Automobile Commerce Association (ACAP).

The majority of these cars produced are exported to Europe with Germany the main market at 21.4%.

Spain too is buying ‘Made in Portugal’ cars but that market has shrunk from 15.4% of the market to just 9.7%.

The UK, which has been the third main destination for Portuguese produced models, many from Autoeuropa, has been overtaken by France and Italy.

Of the 294,000 vehicles produced in 2018 in Portugal – an increase of 68% on 2017-, 97% (285,637) cars were exported overseas.

It has made Portugal’s automotive sector extremely important for its economy, particularly Autoeuropa which produces the T-Roc.

The top three export destinations are: Germany (21.4%), France (15.4%) and Italy (12.2%) followed by the UK (10.7%), Spain (9.7%), Austria (4.5%, Belgium (2.8%) and China (2.7%).

France and Italy have seen imports of Portuguese produced vehicles increase with France climbing from 10% to 15.4% since 2017 while imports to Italy have tripled from 3.7% to 12.2% from 2017 to 2018.

Last year also saw sales to new markets while other markets disappeared for Portugal. The new markets were Denmark, Czech Republic, Ireland and Slovenia. (1.1%)

And last year was a record year in terms of car production in Portugal. In total 294,000 units were produced, a 67.7% increase on 2017 according to the ACAP.