The Czech Republic has become the country with the highest per capita production of cars in the world over the last thirty years. 2024 was a record year with more than 1.4 million manufactured vehicles in the country of 10 million inhabitants. This is an increase of almost 4% year-on-year.

However, production plummeted by 7.1% in the first quarter of 2025.

The main reason for this was the drop in demand in the West, which was triggered by the problems in the European automotive industry, the slow transition to electromobility, and US tariffs.

Meanwhile, the country's arms industry is booming.

"The defense industry can become a new engine of the Czech and European economy," Danuse Nerudova, member of the European Parliament's Committee on Budgets, told DW.

"It can utilize the supply capacities and workforce freed up by the automotive sector, boost economic growth and strengthen our security at the same time."

Petr Zahradnik, a Czech economist and advisor to the European Economic and Social Committee in Brussels, is somewhat more skeptical. "Czech arms factories are........

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