Automobile output to fall 20% this year

Automobile manufacturers are anticipating a drop in revenues of CZK 215bn in 2020 following a record result in 2019. Last year was always going to be a tough one to follow, as revenues rose 1.9 percent year-on-year to CZK 1.124 trillion and exports jumped 2.4 percent. But hopes of even getting close were dashed as soon as the car plants closed to prevent the spread of Covid-19, according to the automobile manufacturers association SAP. It predicts that the number of vehicles produced this year will fall 300,000 to 1.1 million. "Despite the gradual cooling of the market, the Czech automobile industry's results reached a new maximum," said SAP's president Bohdan Wojnar. "But now we have completely different concerns…For this year, we're estimating a fall in the production of vehicles of around 20 percent.