Shift to electric car production: national strategies in Central and Eastern Europe

Leader of the project: HUN-REN CERS, Institute of World Economics, Hungary

Coordinator of the project: Gábor Túry (HUN-REN CERS Institute of World Economics)

Implementation period: 2024 – 2025

This research project supported by

PROJECT PARTNERS

Prague University of Economics and Business, Czechia – WEBSITE

SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Poland – WEBSITE

Institute of Economic Sciences, Serbia – WEBSITE

Pan European University, Slovakia – WEBSITE

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Efforts to reduce carbon emissions in road transportation are creating new challenges for Europe’s automotive industry. Substantial investments are made to meet the European Commission’s roadmap, particularly in addressing the gap in electric vehicle (EV) battery development and production. Central Europe is at the forefront of these efforts, attracting significant investments from EV battery manufacturers, as the Visegrad 4 and Serbia (V4+S) play a significant role in European automotive production. However, foreign investors in V4 countries prioritise short-term gains over long-term strategies, maintaining assembly-based roles rather than advancing higher-value activities. Similarly, Serbia’s automotive industry has expanded primarily through foreign investments, albeit with limited added value due to the predominant role of assembling complex components imported from abroad. Therefore, the main issue the project focuses on is improving the position of V4+S in minimising the existing assembly-based role and implementing more high-value activities of the automotive industry value chains.

In connection with this, the following questions arise: • What are the key investment trends in response to EV technological transitions in V4+S? • How have changes in the automotive Global Value Chain affected regional industry dynamics? • What are the similar and different opportunities and challenges in the EV technological transition in V4+S? • What policy recommendations can be derived to implement more high-value activities in V4+S?

To answer these questions, we will identify threats and opportunities by exploring automotive value chain transformations related to the decarbonisation process. Furthermore, we will examine how governmental strategic goals are fulfilled. With the help of interviews with the stakeholders, statistical and documentary analysis we will provide a detailed picture of the automotive industry’s transition process in each country. During the project implementation, we will perform the following activities: • Analysis and comparison of investments related to technological transition in the automotive industry; • Identification and examination of changes and upgradings in the automotive value chain; • Semistructured interviews with companies and stakeholder representatives, such as industry associations, trade unions, clusters, chamber of commerce, etc.; • Identification and analysis of strategies of selected individual countries; • Elaboration of case studies on sectors, countries and companies; • Preparing scientific articles; • Formulation of public policy recommendations; • Communication of the project outcomes through conference presentations, university lectures, scientific articles and in the final project report; the elaborated case studies will serve as a basis for discussion in university seminars within the Doing Business in the Globalized Environment course at Prague University of Economics and Business, the EU Internal Market at the SGH Warsaw School of Economics. Dissemination of all project research findings and topic-related updates through social media, events and relevant news outlets.

DISSEMINATION/OUTPUTS

Conferences/Workshops

Date: September 20, 2024

Venue: HTK, 1097 Budapest, Tóth Kálmán u. 4., Hungary

Workshop: (entitled) The impact of the European BEV boom on the car industry in Central and Eastern Europe

Date: April 21, 2025

Venue: Institute of Economic Sciences, Zmaj Jovina 12, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia

Final Workshop: (entitled) Shift to electric car production: national strategies in the Central and Eastern Europe

Research papers/Publications