European suppliers announced about 104,000 job cuts in 2024–2025 but only 7,000 new jobs in 2025. In H1 2026 the count was 18,900 cuts against 4,840 new jobs, although CLEPA's same digest also prints 5,440.
Back to the trend of the hour: A 60-year-old French car-parts factory closes, 244 workers lose jobs
Poly Rating · from the trend of the hour
Car parts plants closing in Europe 2026: top 10 countries
France built 15.5% more cars in 2025 and still lost parts plants from Brittany to the Allier, while Europe's suppliers announced 104,000 job cuts in two years against just 7,000 new jobs in 2025.
- No. 1: Germany
- 10 places
- 7 AIs
01Final list
7 AIs each built their own list of ten independently. Here is one result that is easy to check: every place has a reason, a source, and the list of AIs that included it.
A bright badge means this AI put the entry on its list. A dim badge means it did not.
- 1
Germany
Built 2.3% more cars in 2025 (4.03M), yet announced over 70,000 net auto job cuts in 2024. Industrial power costs €22.64 per 100 kWh, third-highest in the EU.
Included it: Claude, ChatGPT, Meta, Grok, Gemini, MiMo, DeepSeek.In their lists: Claude: 1 · ChatGPT: 1 · Meta: 1 · Grok: 1 · Gemini: 1 · MiMo: 1 · DeepSeek: 1
What each AI noted 7
- Claudeplace 1
The biggest producer (4.03M cars in 2025) and the biggest source of supplier closures, with the third-highest industrial power price in the EU.
Source ↗ - ChatGPTplace 1
Bosch's revised plan reaches 9,810 German positions by 2030, while a new axle plant near BMW's Munich works targets roughly 250 jobs.
- Metaplace 1
4,700 Schaeffler jobs + 1,532 Michelin Germany + 10,000 Forvia Europe (mostly Germany) – lost 554k vehicles production 2020-24
- Grokplace 1
Car output rose 2.3% to 4.03 million, and large restructurings still cut more than 70,000 jobs in 2024.
Source ↗ - Geminiplace 1
Europe's automotive heartland lost over 55,000 supplier jobs between 2024 and 2026 as industrial electricity prices of €0.215/kWh and €44.50/h labor costs accelerated component relocation to Central Europe and Morocco.
- MiMoplace 1
More than 70,000 net automotive jobs announced for removal in 2024 alone — three quarters of the entire EU restructuring wave.
Source ↗ - DeepSeekplace 1
Europe's largest car producer (4.03 million vehicles in 2025) is also losing supplier jobs faster than any other country: 50,000 announced cuts across the supply chain in 2025 alone.
7 of 7 - 2
France
Car output rose 15.5% in 2025, yet Michelin, Bosch (twice), Dumarey, Lisi and Fonderie de Bretagne closed plants. The cause is cost and relocation, not missing volume.
Included it: Claude, ChatGPT, Meta, Grok, Gemini, MiMo, DeepSeek.In their lists: Claude: 2 · ChatGPT: 2 · Meta: 2 · Grok: 2 · Gemini: 2 · MiMo: 2 · DeepSeek: 2
What each AI noted 7
- Claudeplace 2
Output rose 15.5% in 2025 yet suppliers closed plants anyway: Michelin, Bosch twice, Dumarey, Lisi, Forvia.
Source ↗ - ChatGPTplace 2
French passenger-car output rose 15.5% in 2025 even as Michelin shut two plants and Verkor opened a battery-cell factory.
Source ↗ - Metaplace 2
Michelin 1,254 + Valeo ∼1,000 + Bosch 413+153 + MA France 280 + Fonderie 244 = >3,100 direct – 849k cars built vs 1.44m Czech
- Grokplace 2
Car plants built 15.5% more cars in 2025; the parts plants closed anyway.
Source ↗ - Geminiplace 2
Beset by a collapse in domestic car output to 1 million vehicles, France shed over 14,000 supplier roles from Brittany to Alsace while struggling to attract tier-2 suppliers despite its battery gigafactory valley.
- MiMoplace 2
The country where whole supplier towns close one after another — Michelin, Bosch, Dumarey, Allgaier, Lisi, Sogefi, Fonderie de Bretagne in under two years.
- DeepSeekplace 2
France produced 15.5% more cars in 2025 than in 2024, yet its supplier base is contracting faster than almost any other EU country.
Source ↗
7 of 7 - 3
Hungary
Hungary is the biggest opener: CATL Debrecen is heading for 3,300 jobs and BYD Szeged has hired 960, at €15.8 an hour in industry. WKW Győr is still cutting 470.
Included it: Claude, ChatGPT, Meta, Grok, Gemini, MiMo, DeepSeek.In their lists: Claude: 8 · ChatGPT: 8 · Meta: 9 · Grok: 3 · Gemini: 4 · MiMo: 4 · DeepSeek: 9
What each AI noted 7
- Claudeplace 8
Third-cheapest labour in the EU (€15.2 an hour) and a string of new plants: Hyundai Mobis, CAIP, GKN.
Source ↗ - ChatGPTplace 8
WKW announced 470 Győr losses in September 2026; Halms' separate Miskolc project promises 1,000 jobs in three phases.
Source ↗ - Metaplace 9
Hungary €14.1/h labour but huge battery plant investments – CATL, BYD – offsets some closures in west
Source ↗ - Grokplace 3
Car output fell 5.6%, while CATL in Debrecen is hiring toward 3,300 people this year.
Source ↗ - Geminiplace 4
The EU's undisputed magnet for Asian battery giants, drawing over €16B in greenfield supplier investments (CATL, EVE Energy, BYD) to offset rising pressure on its legacy German-tied engine suppliers.
- MiMoplace 4
Debrecen is becoming Europe's Chinese battery workshop — Eve Energy's plant starts in 2027, Halms is pouring €200m into aluminium castings.
Source ↗ - DeepSeekplace 9
Magna opened a body-and-chassis plant in Vecsés with 240 jobs (up to 300), and Meleghy Automotive opened a new plant in Miskolc.
7 of 7 - 4
Italy
Italy has a demand collapse: cars built fell from 546,440 in 2023 to 237,975 in 2025, the steepest drop in the EU. Magneti Marelli's restructuring affects 1,600 workers.
Included it: Claude, ChatGPT, Meta, Grok, Gemini, MiMo, DeepSeek.In their lists: Claude: 6 · ChatGPT: 3 · Meta: 3 · Grok: 4 · Gemini: 3 · MiMo: 7 · DeepSeek: 3
What each AI noted 7
- Claudeplace 6
Cars built fell 22.9% in 2025, the steepest drop in the EU, which is a demand problem more than a cost one.
Source ↗ - ChatGPTplace 3
Italy built 22.9% fewer passenger cars in 2025, even after launching a new hybrid-transmission operation at Mirafiori.
- Metaplace 3
Stellantis cut 10,000 jobs in Italy in 4 years, Italy car production down 22.9% in 2024 – worst fall in EU
- Grokplace 4
From 546,440 cars in 2023 to 237,975 in 2025.
Source ↗ - Geminiplace 3
With Stellantis vehicle assembly plunging below 750,000 units, over 11,000 Italian component jobs vanished in Turin and the Motor Valley amid some of the EU's steepest industrial power tariffs.
- MiMoplace 7
Northern Italy is treated by Eurofound as a German satellite market — its suppliers feel Wolfsburg's cuts as if they were domestic.
Source ↗ - DeepSeekplace 3
Stellantis built about 380,000 vehicles in Italy in 2025, one-fifth fewer than in 2024, and Magneti Marelli's crisis affects 1,600 workers across multiple sites.
7 of 7 - 5
Spain
Spain moves both ways: Mahle cuts about 740 jobs and Bosal Pedrola 135, while Stellantis-CATL builds a Zaragoza battery plant planned for over 4,000 jobs. Output fell 5.7%.
Included it: Claude, ChatGPT, Meta, Grok, Gemini, MiMo, DeepSeek.In their lists: Claude: 5 · ChatGPT: 9 · Meta: 4 · Grok: 5 · Gemini: 6 · MiMo: 3 · DeepSeek: 4
What each AI noted 7
- Claudeplace 5
Output fell 5.7% to 1.77M, the second-largest producer in the EU, at €26.4 an hour, well above the cheaper east.
Source ↗ - ChatGPTplace 9
Bosal's 135-person Pedrola plant depended on Volkswagen for 80% of its workload; a battery joint venture is being built elsewhere in Zaragoza.
- Metaplace 4
Spain built 1.87m cars in 2024 second only to Germany, yet suppliers face 379k production loss 2020-24
Source ↗ - Grokplace 5
Output fell 5.7%, yet 2024 still added Renault and Ebro jobs.
Source ↗ - Geminiplace 6
Europe's second-biggest car producer sustained 2.45M vehicle builds and captured €4.5B in greenfield battery supplier plants (PowerCo Sagunto, Envision AESC) to cushion localized ICE supplier downsizing.
- MiMoplace 3
The EU's main openings story — Chinese-linked EV plants in Barcelona and cathode materials — while still taking ICE cuts at Mahle.
Source ↗ - DeepSeekplace 4
Spain produced 1.77 million cars in 2025 (down 6% year-on-year) and Mahle alone announced 740 redundancies.
Source ↗
7 of 7 - 6
Czechia
Car output held flat at 1.44M, yet Adient cut 1,100 seat jobs. AISIN's new Písek eAxle plant adds about 350.
Included it: Claude, ChatGPT, Meta, Grok, Gemini, MiMo, DeepSeek.In their lists: Claude: 4 · ChatGPT: 4 · Meta: 7 · Grok: 7 · Gemini: 7 · MiMo: 5 · DeepSeek: 7
What each AI noted 7
- Claudeplace 4
1.44M cars built, but Inteva is closing a plant (100+ jobs) and sending production to Romania.
Source ↗ - ChatGPTplace 4
Adient announced 1,100 seating jobs lost at two plants, while AISIN opened a Písek eAxle facility expecting about 350 jobs.
Source ↗ - Metaplace 7
8 plants built 1.44m cars 2024 – ahead of France with 20 plants, but electricity €17 c€/kWh 31% above Poland
Source ↗ - Grokplace 7
1.44 million cars, almost flat, so the parts that leave are not leaving for lack of an assembly line.
Source ↗ - Geminiplace 7
Maintaining 1.4M vehicle assemblies on the back of Škoda and Hyundai, Czechia avoided mass plant liquidations by shifting tier-1 suppliers into sensor, electronics, and MEB platform modules.
- MiMoplace 5
Third in EU car output but plugged directly into German demand — when Wolfsburg sneezes, Bohemian suppliers catch cold.
Source ↗ - DeepSeekplace 7
AISIN opened a €185 million electric-motor plant in Písek creating 180 jobs, with 300 more to come by 2027.
Source ↗
7 of 7 - 7
Slovakia
Output rose 8.1% to 1.07M. ZF Detva (about 250 jobs) moves its work within Slovakia, while Gotion-InoBat plans 1,311 jobs, though these are not yet filled.
Included it: Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, Gemini, MiMo, DeepSeek. Did not include: Meta.In their lists: Claude: 3 · ChatGPT: 6 · Grok: 6 · Gemini: 9 · MiMo: 8 · DeepSeek: 8
What each AI noted 6
- Claudeplace 3
A record 8.1% rise in cars built, yet ZF is closing Detva (~250 jobs) and shifting the work to its other Slovak plant at Levice.
Source ↗ - ChatGPTplace 6
ZF's 250-job Detva closure sits beside a €1.2 billion battery project promising 1,311 jobs; the latter remains an investment commitment.
Source ↗ - Grokplace 6
The large EU builder whose output jumped: plus 8.1%, to 1.07 million cars.
Source ↗ - Geminiplace 9
Producing more cars per capita than any nation on earth (1M units), Slovakia absorbed 4,200 ICE supplier cuts while securing Volvo's €1.2B Kosice EV plant and Gotion-InoBat battery clusters.
- MiMoplace 8
The world's car-plant density champion — 199 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants — so every supplier closure is a national event.
Source ↗ - DeepSeekplace 8
Hyundai Mobis is building a €170 million plant in Nováky for 270 workers; DH Autolead opened a €4.7 million steering-wheel plant in Krásno nad Kysucou.
6 of 7 - 8
Romania
Low costs (€12.6 an hour in industry) do not stop cuts: Leoni Arad cuts 465 and Schaeffler 800. Nokian's €650M Oradea tyre plant has been delivering since 2025.
Included it: Claude, ChatGPT, Meta, Grok, MiMo. Did not include: Gemini, DeepSeek.In their lists: Claude: 7 · ChatGPT: 7 · Meta: 8 · Grok: 10 · MiMo: 9
What each AI noted 5
- Claudeplace 7
Wins work from Czechia (Inteva) at €13.6 an hour, but industrial power rose 15.4% and output fell 5%.
Source ↗ - ChatGPTplace 7
Leoni planned 465 cuts in Arad while Nokian's €650 million Oradea tyre plant was already delivering tyres by March 2025.
Source ↗ - Metaplace 8
Hourly labour €12.5 lowest in EU after Bulgaria, Dacia production supports supplier investments despite closures elsewhere
Source ↗ - Grokplace 10
€13.6 an hour and rising 10.6%, while car output fell 5%.
Source ↗ - MiMoplace 9
Schaeffler cut 800 ICE jobs and moved work to Asia — while other suppliers (SE Bordnetze) were still moving production INTO Romania.
Source ↗
5 of 7 - 9
Poland
Lear moved 960 jobs to Tunisia and Shiloh is closing a plant of nearly 200, while POSCO's Brzeg motor-core plant plans about 200. Industrial labour costs €18.2 an hour.
Included it: ChatGPT, Meta, Grok, Gemini, MiMo, DeepSeek. Did not include: Claude.In their lists: ChatGPT: 10 · Meta: 6 · Grok: 9 · Gemini: 5 · MiMo: 6 · DeepSeek: 6
What each AI noted 6
- ChatGPTplace 10
A 200-job Shiloh closure and a completed electric-motor-core factory promising about 200 jobs show both directions within the same supplier economy.
Source ↗ - Metaplace 6
Poland low labour €12-15/h but German suppliers closing – Boruszew Kunststofftechnik bankruptcy 2024 example
- Grokplace 9
Labour cost has reached €19.10 an hour, close to Czechia, and supplier work is still recorded leaving for outside the EU.
Source ↗ - Geminiplace 5
A dual-speed automotive powerhouse where century-old powertrain and engine plants shuttered 10,000 jobs, while €3.2B poured into battery materials and cathode plants across Silesia and Lower Silesia.
- MiMoplace 6
Lear cut 960 jobs by moving work to Tunisia — yet Polish car registrations still grew 8.3% in 2025.
Source ↗ - DeepSeekplace 6
Poland is a major automotive supplier hub, but the six largest suppliers alone cut over 2,000 jobs in the second half of 2025.
6 of 7 - 10
Morocco
Morocco is outside the EU but takes the work: Lisi's Val-d'Oise production moves partly here, and Benteler is building a Kenitra plant for over 300 jobs, due in 2026.
Included it: Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek. Did not include: ChatGPT, Meta, Grok, MiMo.In their lists: Claude: 9 · Gemini: 8 · DeepSeek: 10
What each AI noted 3
- Claudeplace 9
Outside the EU yet building supplier plants for Europe: Benteler Kenitra (2026) and the Martur Fompak seat plant with 1,150 jobs.
- Geminiplace 8
The premier near-neighbour beneficiary of European deindustrialization, gaining over 15,000 new wiring harness and stamping jobs as French and German tier-1s fled €40/hr domestic wage structures.
- DeepSeekplace 10
Lisi is moving 135 jobs from Val-d'Oise to Morocco; Renault's supplier network in Tangier and Kenitra is absorbing work that was once done in France.
3 of 7
02Worth knowing
What the AIs noticed while building the list.
Car volume does not explain the closures. Germany (+2.3%) and France (+15.5%) built more cars in 2025 and still lost supplier plants, while Italy's output fell 22.9%.
Not all work moves to the cheapest country. Bosch moves Yzeure's ESP output back to Germany, Forvia sends most of Messei's work to another French plant, and Lisi splits its work between Morocco and Germany.
Low wages alone do not save plants: Bulgaria, at €10.9 an hour, still lost 1,300 jobs at Leoni Pleven, and Romania lost 800 at Schaeffler to Asia.
Closures and bankruptcies rose from 22% of supplier job cuts in 2020–2024 to 44% in H1 2025, so plants are now shutting rather than only shrinking.
03How we counted
In plain words, no formulas.
1The question
Top 10 European Countries Where Car-Parts Plants Are Closing, and Where New Plants Are Opening
2Why this topic
It puts closures and openings side by side, so the reader can see where the work went, not just where it ended.
3Where it applies
Europe and its near neighbours, automotive supply chain
4What we looked at
- Announced job cuts at supplier and foundry sites per country (Eurofound)
- Announced new supplier plant investment per country (national investment agencies and press announcements)
- Vehicles built per country (ACEA)
- Hourly labour cost and industrial electricity price per country (Eurostat)
- Eurofound, The uneven reshaping of Europe's automotive industry — Net job change in large restructuring announcements at carmakers and suppliers, Germany vs the rest of the EU, 2022 to Q2 2026
- CLEPA supplier job tracker — Supplier job cuts and new jobs announced across Europe, by half-year
- ACEA Economic and Market Report, full year 2025 — Passenger cars built per EU country (S&P Global Mobility data)
- Eurostat labour costs (INSEE series) — 2025 hourly labour cost in industry, firms with 10 or more employees
5Who ranked
7 AIs, each building its own list of ten independently and naming a source for every place: Claude, ChatGPT, Meta, Grok, Gemini, MiMo, DeepSeek.
6How the places were set
The same entry written differently by different AIs was counted as one. The more AIs put an entry on their list, and the higher they put it, the higher its place. "AI agreement" shows how many of the AIs had it on their own list. Sources are only those the AIs found themselves; nothing was added by hand.
04Each AI's own list
🇺🇸 Claude10 places · 4 notes
The same question, answered by Claude alone. The final list above combines all the AIs.
- 1Germany
The biggest producer (4.03M cars in 2025) and the biggest source of supplier closures, with the third-highest industrial power price in the EU.
Source ↗ - 2France
Output rose 15.5% in 2025 yet suppliers closed plants anyway: Michelin, Bosch twice, Dumarey, Lisi, Forvia.
Source ↗ - 3Slovakia
A record 8.1% rise in cars built, yet ZF is closing Detva (~250 jobs) and shifting the work to its other Slovak plant at Levice.
Source ↗ - 4Czechia
1.44M cars built, but Inteva is closing a plant (100+ jobs) and sending production to Romania.
Source ↗ - 5Spain
Output fell 5.7% to 1.77M, the second-largest producer in the EU, at €26.4 an hour, well above the cheaper east.
Source ↗ - 6Italy
Cars built fell 22.9% in 2025, the steepest drop in the EU, which is a demand problem more than a cost one.
Source ↗ - 7Romania
Wins work from Czechia (Inteva) at €13.6 an hour, but industrial power rose 15.4% and output fell 5%.
Source ↗ - 8Hungary
Third-cheapest labour in the EU (€15.2 an hour) and a string of new plants: Hyundai Mobis, CAIP, GKN.
Source ↗ - 9Morocco
Outside the EU yet building supplier plants for Europe: Benteler Kenitra (2026) and the Martur Fompak seat plant with 1,150 jobs.
- 10Turkey
Hyundai Mobis already runs a Turkish plant, one of four European bases next to the new Hungarian one.
Source ↗
What Claude noticed
European suppliers announced about 104,000 job cuts across 2024 and 2025, but only 7,000 new positions in 2025. In H1 2026 it was 18,900 cuts against 4,840 new jobs.
France built 15.5% more cars in 2025, yet its suppliers kept closing plants. Falling output is not the main driver there.
Eurofound found about one third of expansion cases involved Chinese companies expanding in the EU, and that some supply jobs are moving to lower-cost countries outside the EU.
Germany pays €22.64 per 100 kWh for industrial power against an EU average of €18.37, while France's price fell 14.1% and Romania's rose 15.4% in a year.
🇺🇸 ChatGPT10 places · 4 notes
The same question, answered by ChatGPT alone. The final list above combines all the AIs.
- 1Germany, automotive suppliers 2024–2026
Bosch's revised plan reaches 9,810 German positions by 2030, while a new axle plant near BMW's Munich works targets roughly 250 jobs.
- 2France, automotive suppliers 2024–2026
French passenger-car output rose 15.5% in 2025 even as Michelin shut two plants and Verkor opened a battery-cell factory.
Source ↗ - 3Italy, automotive suppliers 2024–2026
Italy built 22.9% fewer passenger cars in 2025, even after launching a new hybrid-transmission operation at Mirafiori.
- 4Czechia, automotive suppliers 2024–2026
Adient announced 1,100 seating jobs lost at two plants, while AISIN opened a Písek eAxle facility expecting about 350 jobs.
Source ↗ - 5Bulgaria, automotive suppliers 2024–2026
The EU's lowest industrial labour cost in this comparison did not save 1,300 Leoni jobs; a different investor opened an aluminium-parts plant near Plovdiv.
Source ↗ - 6Slovakia, automotive suppliers 2024–2026
ZF's 250-job Detva closure sits beside a €1.2 billion battery project promising 1,311 jobs; the latter remains an investment commitment.
Source ↗ - 7Romania, automotive suppliers 2024–2026
Leoni planned 465 cuts in Arad while Nokian's €650 million Oradea tyre plant was already delivering tyres by March 2025.
Source ↗ - 8Hungary, automotive suppliers 2024–2026
WKW announced 470 Győr losses in September 2026; Halms' separate Miskolc project promises 1,000 jobs in three phases.
Source ↗ - 9Spain, automotive suppliers 2024–2026
Bosal's 135-person Pedrola plant depended on Volkswagen for 80% of its workload; a battery joint venture is being built elsewhere in Zaragoza.
- 10Poland, automotive suppliers 2024–2026
A 200-job Shiloh closure and a completed electric-motor-core factory promising about 200 jobs show both directions within the same supplier economy.
Source ↗
What ChatGPT noticed
CLEPA counted 104,000 announced supplier cuts in Europe in 2024–2025. That sector-wide figure cannot be reconstructed by adding the selected plants here.
Bulgaria's €10.9 hourly industrial labour cost and the 1,300-job Leoni closure make low wages alone an inadequate explanation for where suppliers survive.
France's car output rose 15.5% in 2025 while Italy's fell 22.9%; supplier closures occurred in both, so national assembly volume is only one part of the explanation.
Germany paid €0.2264/kWh in Eurostat's medium non-household electricity band, above the €0.1837 EU average; a large energy-intensive foundry may face a different tariff.
🇺🇸 Meta10 places · 3 notes
The same question, answered by Meta alone. The final list above combines all the AIs.
- 1Germany – car-parts closures 2024-2026
4,700 Schaeffler jobs + 1,532 Michelin Germany + 10,000 Forvia Europe (mostly Germany) – lost 554k vehicles production 2020-24
- 2France – car-parts closures 2024-2026
Michelin 1,254 + Valeo ∼1,000 + Bosch 413+153 + MA France 280 + Fonderie 244 = >3,100 direct – 849k cars built vs 1.44m Czech
- 3Italy – car-parts closures 2024-2025
Stellantis cut 10,000 jobs in Italy in 4 years, Italy car production down 22.9% in 2024 – worst fall in EU
- 4Spain – car-parts pressures but still building
Spain built 1.87m cars in 2024 second only to Germany, yet suppliers face 379k production loss 2020-24
Source ↗ - 5United Kingdom – Vauxhall and suppliers 2024-2025
Stellantis to shut Vauxhall van factory Luton – 1,000+ jobs at risk, Ford cuts 4,000 Europe mainly UK/Germany
- 6Poland – closures vs new investments
Poland low labour €12-15/h but German suppliers closing – Boruszew Kunststofftechnik bankruptcy 2024 example
- 7Czech Republic – high production but cost squeeze
8 plants built 1.44m cars 2024 – ahead of France with 20 plants, but electricity €17 c€/kWh 31% above Poland
Source ↗ - 8Romania – low-cost gainer with new plants
Hourly labour €12.5 lowest in EU after Bulgaria, Dacia production supports supplier investments despite closures elsewhere
Source ↗ - 9Hungary – battery and parts investments rising
Hungary €14.1/h labour but huge battery plant investments – CATL, BYD – offsets some closures in west
Source ↗ - 10Turkey – near-Europe gainer
Turkey 684k cars Jan-Sep 2023 +20.8% YoY, low costs and customs union – many EU suppliers moving production here
Source ↗
What Meta noticed
Hourly labour cost gap 2024 – Bulgaria €10.6 vs Denmark €50.1 – 4.7x gap inside EU explains why German suppliers cut 10,000 jobs via attrition and move to Poland/Romania/Turkey
Industrial electricity small consumer band IB – Germany 20.7 c€/kWh, Italy similar, Ireland 25.6 c€/kWh highest non-household EU 2024, Spain ∼12 c€/kWh – 2x difference is bigger than labour gap for foundries
ACEA 2024 – Germany 35.2% EU car production (4.03m), Spain 15.4% (1.77m), Czech 12.6% (1.44m), Slovakia 9.4% (1.07m), France 8.6% (986k) – France builds fewer cars than Czech with 2.5x more plants
🇺🇸 Grok10 places · 4 notes
The same question, answered by Grok alone. The final list above combines all the AIs.
- 1Germany
Car output rose 2.3% to 4.03 million, and large restructurings still cut more than 70,000 jobs in 2024.
Source ↗ - 2France
Car plants built 15.5% more cars in 2025; the parts plants closed anyway.
Source ↗ - 3Hungary
Car output fell 5.6%, while CATL in Debrecen is hiring toward 3,300 people this year.
Source ↗ - 4Italy
From 546,440 cars in 2023 to 237,975 in 2025.
Source ↗ - 5Spain
Output fell 5.7%, yet 2024 still added Renault and Ebro jobs.
Source ↗ - 6Slovakia
The large EU builder whose output jumped: plus 8.1%, to 1.07 million cars.
Source ↗ - 7Czechia
1.44 million cars, almost flat, so the parts that leave are not leaving for lack of an assembly line.
Source ↗ - 8United Kingdom
713,079 cars in 2025, down 8.4% in a year, outside the EU table but inside the same supply chain.
Source ↗ - 9Poland
Labour cost has reached €19.10 an hour, close to Czechia, and supplier work is still recorded leaving for outside the EU.
Source ↗ - 10Romania
€13.6 an hour and rising 10.6%, while car output fell 5%.
Source ↗
What Grok noticed
Germany is the clearest split between the causes. It built 4,032,756 cars in 2025, more than the year before, and still accounted for more than 70,000 of the net automotive restructuring losses in 2024. Missing volume does not explain it. Power at €22.64 per 100 kWh, third in the EU, is part of what suppliers are pricing.
France went the other way on volume and still lost plants. Passenger-car output rose 15.5% to 986,275, while foundries and parts plants from Brittany to the Allier closed. On some of those parts the quoted gap with Turkey, India and China is 20–25%, and France's non-wage labour costs are 32.3% of the bill, the highest share in the EU.
The work does not all run downhill to the cheapest wage. Bosch is moving Yzeure's ESP production back to Germany. Lisi is splitting Puiseux-Pontoise between Morocco and Germany. Forvia is sending most of Messei to another French plant and only the spare parts to Portugal.
A FIEV survey published this week found that half the supplier members who answered intend to close a European plant within 12 months. Valeo's chief, a day earlier, put the stakes at up to 150 auto-related plants and said each extra percentage point of local content was worth about 15,000 European jobs.
🇺🇸 Gemini10 places · 1 notes
The same question, answered by Gemini alone. The final list above combines all the AIs.
- 1Germany
Europe's automotive heartland lost over 55,000 supplier jobs between 2024 and 2026 as industrial electricity prices of €0.215/kWh and €44.50/h labor costs accelerated component relocation to Central Europe and Morocco.
- 2France
Beset by a collapse in domestic car output to 1 million vehicles, France shed over 14,000 supplier roles from Brittany to Alsace while struggling to attract tier-2 suppliers despite its battery gigafactory valley.
- 3Italy
With Stellantis vehicle assembly plunging below 750,000 units, over 11,000 Italian component jobs vanished in Turin and the Motor Valley amid some of the EU's steepest industrial power tariffs.
- 4Hungary
The EU's undisputed magnet for Asian battery giants, drawing over €16B in greenfield supplier investments (CATL, EVE Energy, BYD) to offset rising pressure on its legacy German-tied engine suppliers.
- 5Poland
A dual-speed automotive powerhouse where century-old powertrain and engine plants shuttered 10,000 jobs, while €3.2B poured into battery materials and cathode plants across Silesia and Lower Silesia.
- 6Spain
Europe's second-biggest car producer sustained 2.45M vehicle builds and captured €4.5B in greenfield battery supplier plants (PowerCo Sagunto, Envision AESC) to cushion localized ICE supplier downsizing.
- 7Czech Republic
Maintaining 1.4M vehicle assemblies on the back of Škoda and Hyundai, Czechia avoided mass plant liquidations by shifting tier-1 suppliers into sensor, electronics, and MEB platform modules.
- 8Morocco
The premier near-neighbour beneficiary of European deindustrialization, gaining over 15,000 new wiring harness and stamping jobs as French and German tier-1s fled €40/hr domestic wage structures.
- 9Slovakia
Producing more cars per capita than any nation on earth (1M units), Slovakia absorbed 4,200 ICE supplier cuts while securing Volvo's €1.2B Kosice EV plant and Gotion-InoBat battery clusters.
- 10Turkey
A customs-union manufacturing hub of 1.45M vehicles that attracted €1.8B in commercial vehicle and tier-1 chassis investment, leveraging competitive €8.50/hr labor to capture orders from southern Europe.
What Gemini noticed
The Hourly Labor and Energy Chasm: Automotive suppliers in Germany and France face labor costs exceeding €42 to €44 per hour alongside industrial electricity rates above €0.16–€0.21/kWh, creating an insurmountable operating handicap against Hungary (€11.50/hr), Turkey (€8.50/hr), and Morocco (€3.60/hr) for labor-intensive mechanical components.
🇨🇳 MiMo10 places · 4 notes
The same question, answered by MiMo alone. The final list above combines all the AIs.
- 1Germany
More than 70,000 net automotive jobs announced for removal in 2024 alone — three quarters of the entire EU restructuring wave.
Source ↗ - 2France
The country where whole supplier towns close one after another — Michelin, Bosch, Dumarey, Allgaier, Lisi, Sogefi, Fonderie de Bretagne in under two years.
- 3Spain
The EU's main openings story — Chinese-linked EV plants in Barcelona and cathode materials — while still taking ICE cuts at Mahle.
Source ↗ - 4Hungary
Debrecen is becoming Europe's Chinese battery workshop — Eve Energy's plant starts in 2027, Halms is pouring €200m into aluminium castings.
Source ↗ - 5Czechia
Third in EU car output but plugged directly into German demand — when Wolfsburg sneezes, Bohemian suppliers catch cold.
Source ↗ - 6Poland
Lear cut 960 jobs by moving work to Tunisia — yet Polish car registrations still grew 8.3% in 2025.
Source ↗ - 7Italy
Northern Italy is treated by Eurofound as a German satellite market — its suppliers feel Wolfsburg's cuts as if they were domestic.
Source ↗ - 8Slovakia
The world's car-plant density champion — 199 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants — so every supplier closure is a national event.
Source ↗ - 9Romania
Schaeffler cut 800 ICE jobs and moved work to Asia — while other suppliers (SE Bordnetze) were still moving production INTO Romania.
Source ↗ - 10Portugal
Vanpro lost 475 jobs on a single client's (Autoeuropa) decision — the purest example of one-plant dependency in the EU.
Source ↗
What MiMo noticed
Closures are no longer mostly internal reshuffles. CLEPA found closures and bankruptcies jumped from 22% of supplier job cuts in 2020–2024 to 44% in the first half of 2025 — the business climate, not just the EV switch, is killing plants.
Over 100,000 European car-parts jobs were announced for removal in two years (CLEPA via FT: ~54,000 in 2024 + ~50,000 in 2025), while H1 2026 job creation was only about 5,000 — the openings side is an order of magnitude smaller than the closings side.
The new plants are increasingly Chinese-owned and EV-specific: in early 2026 more than half of all large-scale EU job expansions came from Chinese investors or EV-linked firms (Ebro Barcelona, Eve Energy Debrecen, Halms Hungary, Hunan Yuneng Spain).
Costs explain only part of the story. Germany has the EU's 3rd-highest industrial power price and takes 70%+ of the cuts, but so does low-cost Romania (Schaeffler −800) — the decisive variable is often which OEM the plant feeds, not the hourly wage.
🇨🇳 DeepSeek10 places · 1 notes
The same question, answered by DeepSeek alone. The final list above combines all the AIs.
- 1Germany — car-parts closures and the cost squeeze (2024–2026)
Europe's largest car producer (4.03 million vehicles in 2025) is also losing supplier jobs faster than any other country: 50,000 announced cuts across the supply chain in 2025 alone.
- 2France — closures outpacing openings (2024–2026)
France produced 15.5% more cars in 2025 than in 2024, yet its supplier base is contracting faster than almost any other EU country.
Source ↗ - 3Italy — Stellantis's shrinking footprint (2025–2026)
Stellantis built about 380,000 vehicles in Italy in 2025, one-fifth fewer than in 2024, and Magneti Marelli's crisis affects 1,600 workers across multiple sites.
- 4Spain — closures amid falling production (2025)
Spain produced 1.77 million cars in 2025 (down 6% year-on-year) and Mahle alone announced 740 redundancies.
Source ↗ - 5United Kingdom — Brexit and the supply-chain reset (2024–2026)
The UK automotive supply chain has lost tens of thousands of jobs since 2019, with production down about 20% from pre-Covid levels.
- 6Poland — growing production, but supplier headcount falling (2025)
Poland is a major automotive supplier hub, but the six largest suppliers alone cut over 2,000 jobs in the second half of 2025.
- 7Czech Republic — investment destination (2025)
AISIN opened a €185 million electric-motor plant in Písek creating 180 jobs, with 300 more to come by 2027.
Source ↗ - 8Slovakia — new plants, new jobs (2025)
Hyundai Mobis is building a €170 million plant in Nováky for 270 workers; DH Autolead opened a €4.7 million steering-wheel plant in Krásno nad Kysucou.
- 9Hungary — the new supplier hub (2025)
Magna opened a body-and-chassis plant in Vecsés with 240 jobs (up to 300), and Meleghy Automotive opened a new plant in Miskolc.
- 10Morocco — the offshoring destination (2025–2026)
Lisi is moving 135 jobs from Val-d'Oise to Morocco; Renault's supplier network in Tangier and Kenitra is absorbing work that was once done in France.
What DeepSeek noticed
The EU average industrial electricity price fell to €18.37 per 100 kWh in H2 2025, but Ireland (€25.52), Cyprus (€24.29) and Germany (€22.64) remained far above the average, while Finland paid just €7.48.