The European Union's automotive industry recorded a 5% year-on-year decline in industrial robot installations in 2024, with only 30,650 units deployed across the bloc's vehicle-producing countries. This contraction comes despite the automotive sector traditionally accounting for approximately one-quarter of all global robot installations, according to the World Robotics 2025 Industrial Robots report from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). The downturn marks a significant shift for an industry that has historically been at the forefront of automation adoption.

Germany, the EU's largest vehicle producer with output exceeding 4 million units in 2024, experienced a particularly sharp reduction in robotics investment. The country's automotive sector installed just 6,932 industrial robots last year, representing a 25% decrease compared to 2023. More notably, Germany's share of domestic robot installations attributed to automotive has fallen substantially from 35% in 2021 to just 26% in 2024, indicating a broader trend of declining automation investment in what was once Europe's robotics powerhouse.

The robotics pullback extends across most major EU automotive manufacturing nations. Spain, the bloc's second-largest vehicle producer, saw a 1% decrease to 2,279 installations, while the Czech Republic recorded a 28% decline to 1,116 units. France experienced a 41% reduction to 1,018 installations, and Slovakia's deployments plummeted 75% to just 398 units. Hungary emerged as a notable exception, installing 3,573 industrial robots and bucking the regional trend of declining automation investment.

This European contraction contrasts sharply with global robotics trends, where total installations reached 542,076 units in 2024—more than double the figure from a decade earlier. Asia accounted for 74% of new deployments, with China alone representing 54% of global installations at 295,000 units. The divergent trajectories highlight how regional economic conditions, supply chain considerations, and investment priorities are creating increasingly distinct automation landscapes across major manufacturing hubs worldwide.