Car production in Portugal again suffered a sharp fall in September, compared to the same month of the previous year – and is also below the levels recorded in the first nine months of 2025.
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16/10/2026
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Car production in Portugal continues to fall sharply. In September, it dropped more than 32 percent – with special contribution from the retreats of the passenger and heavy vehicles.
The data revealed this Friday (16 October) by the Automobile Association of Portugal (ACAP) show that last month 19.114 light passenger cars were produced, minus 34.4 percent than in september 2025.
The drop in heavy goods was 31.6 percent (210 units), while light goods retreated 25.9 percent with 5,367 copies produced. Portugal manufactured 24,691 vehicles, which is a 32.7 percent drop compared to September of the previous year.
In total of the first nine months of 2026, car production fell by 10.1 percent with 231.473 cars – 181,651 light passengers (less than 10,3 per cent), 47,974 light commercial (recuo of 8,4 per cent) and 1,848 heavy (reduction of 25.7 per cent when compared with equal period of 2025).
Foreigner is the main destination
Exports are by far the main destination of car production (97.9 percent) the vehicles manufactured here go to other countries). Europe leads (93.1 percent), with special emphasis on Germany, France, Italy and Turkey.