Uzbekistan increases car production despite pandemic 

Uzbekistan produced 143,455 passenger cars in January-June 2020 – 23,450 cars more than in the same period last year, the State Statistics Committee reports. 

In the first half of 2020, the automotive industry of Uzbekistan produced 35,050 Nexia (99,9% growth rate compared to the same period in 2019), 37,682 Cobalt (154,2% growth rate), 26,047 Gentra (133% growth rate), 26,687 Damas (115,8% growth rate), 14,511 Spark (160,4% growth rate) and 3,478 Labo (90.7% growth rate) cars. 

For comparison, 75,635 passenger cars were produced in the first quarter of 2020 – almost 1.3 times more than in the same period of 2019.

Nevertheless, the productions of trucks and buses underwent a decrease of 25.4% and 49.1% respectively.

With the announcement of lockdown and the closure of production plants, the world’s major car companies faced a sharp drop in sales. Most reported temporary suspension of their activities and staff cuts. 

Some companies began to re-equip their factories for the production of medical equipment. For example, Ford, General Motors and Tesla have begun to produce masks and artificial lung ventilators. In May, specialists of the Research and Development Center at UzAuto also developed a prototype of the domestic artificial lung ventilation apparatus.