Automotive industry in Catalonia

Catalonia concentrates 21.8% of the automotive companies in Spain, making it a significant automotive manufacturing center.

Download our report about the automotive industry in Catalonia

Automotive, the second largest sector of Catalonia's economy.

Catalonia concentrates 21.8% of the automotive companies in Spain, making it a significant automotive manufacturing center. Generating 8.66% of the total GDP value, automotive is the second largest sector of Catalonia's economy.

Being home to all levels of the value chain, Catalonia is one of the major automotive R&D and engineering hubs in Europe, as well as a hub in IT solutions and software development for vehicles and mobility. In addition, it hosts Seat's automotive OEM development center, Nissan Technical Center Europe, and most of the engineering units of the parts suppliers Tier 1 and 2.

Mobility-as-a-Service is also a reference in Catalonia with renowned HQ's, development centers, and initiatives like Seat's Metropolis: Lab, Porsche Digital, EIT Urban Mobility, Free Now, SocialCar, Cooltra, or Hive.

Search our database to find Catalan suppliers in the automotive sector.

Global and with access to both markets and suppliers

Catalonia generates 19.1% of Spanish vehicle exports as a worldwide automotive hub, partly due to its excellent internal and external communication network, with full-modal integration transport systems.

Catalonia is also a highly efficient hub for European, North African, and Latin American markets, with over 400 million customers reachable in less than 48 hours. Together with a strong business network and availability of qualified workers, it is no surprise that Catalonia is a leading destination for automotive FDI, where it is the 3rd region in Western Europe for capital investment (2016 - 2020).

352 companies
38,845 employees
19,404 million euros in turnover

“Barcelona holds all the cards to be a major player in the mobility of the future”

Carlos Buenosvinos, Head of SEAT:CODE

Share quote:

Competitive and highly R&D focused

Catalonia has a critical mass of R&D centers specializing in the automotive industry. Different tech centers develop technologies and materials for future vehicles and mobility, such as Applus IDIADA, Eurecat, Leitat, CarNET, i2CAT, or ICFO. Catalonia's Automotive Industry Cluster (CIAC) is highly active, comprising more than 200 companies that work together to push the automotive industry's competitiveness as the driving force behind the Catalan economy.

Catalonia's new business opportunities in the automotive sector

In terms of future mobility, Catalonia is transforming the automotive industrial suppliers (Tier) with a focus on connected-autonomous- shared-electric vehicles (CASE) and the digitalization of plants. R&D, innovation and new technologies are increasing opportunities for engineering companies and solution providers.

The needs of OEMs and Tiers for molds and dies, new materials, components, and plastic injection are giving rise to new business opportunities. Furthermore, automotive R&D, innovation, and new technologies are increasing opportunities for both established engineering and new incoming engineering.