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Investment in automating the car industry in Europe remains high. The total number of industrial robots installed reached 23,000 in 2024, which is the second-best result in five years. These are preliminary results presented by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR).
"The European automotive sector is the region's strongest customer industry for robotics," says Takayuki Ito, President of the International Federation of Robotics. “Car makers are accounting for around a third of annual manufacturing installations in Europe. In terms of automation activity, the combined number of 23,000 European robot installations in the car sector was ahead of the 19,200 units installed in North America in 2024.”
Automotive robot density
At a global level, Europe´s car manufacturing is highly automated: Six European countries are among the top ten in the world's robot density ranking for the automotive industry in 2023: Switzerland is in first place, with a ratio of 3,876 robots to 10,000 factory workers. Slovenia is in third place (1,762 units), Germany in sixth (1,492 units), Austria in eighth (1,412 units), Finland in ninth (1,288 units), and the Benelux countries are in tenth place with 1,132 units.
European Union is in lead
Apart from Switzerland, all of these automation champions are EU member states. The EU27 countries' leading role is evident not only in the automotive industry, but across all sectors, accounting for around 85% of all regional installations in 2024. Germany, which belongs to the five major robot markets in the world, had a share of about 30% of the total installations in Europe. Italy followed with about 10% and Spain with about 6%.
From 2019 to 2024, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of robots installed in the Europe was +3%.
