In 1921, all cars in the country were registered and received license plates, and in 1926, the Lithuanian Automobile Club (LAK) was established, marking the beginning of car sports and tourism. By 1935, the number of passenger cars in the country exceeded 1300. However, at that time Lithuania did not have a developed heavy industry, so all passenger cars were imported from the USA and Western Europe. During the interwar period, Lithuanians were most notable in aviation engineering, led by Antanas Gustaitis.
We did not manufacture cars, but engineering talents were not lacking
During the Soviet era, at the Kaunas Bus Factory (KAG), Lithuanian engineers built bodies from wooden frames and sheet metal on Russian “GAZ” chassis. These were neither beautiful nor safe buses, but they fulfilled their task – transporting people from point A to point B.
Meanwhile, Stasys Brundza created a world-class racing car based on a simple 2105 “Žiguliukas” that achieved high results not only in the Soviet Union but also in international rally championships.
So it would be a mistake to say that we lacked engineering potential in car manufacturing.
The electric car revolution changed the rules of the game
The global automotive industry is currently experiencing the biggest shift in the last century. Electrification has long become the main axis of the market. From 2035, the EU plans that new cars and vans will be zero-emission only. This, together with rapidly advancing battery technology, has created an irreversible trend: the future of transport is electric.
To understand why the Lithuanian light electric car remains only a sketch among enthusiasts, one needs to look deeper into the specifics of the automotive industry and clarify the capabilities of our industry.
Today, electric buses developed in Lithuania are successfully running on our roads and foreign markets, and components created by our engineers are integrated into products of globally recognized vehicle manufacturers.
A natural question arises for the average consumer: if we are so advanced, why do we still not see a Lithuanian light electric car on the streets?
A car has long ceased to be a product of a single country
The automotive industry has been a true example of globalization for the past 50 years. In the 1970s, two oil crises occurred. With increased competition, manufacturers abandoned the traditional model where everything – from steel smelting to final assembly – took place in one country or even one factory.
After the 1990s, with the opening of Eastern European and Asian markets and the spread of electronics in cars, a modern network was formed: design is created in Europe or the USA, raw materials are extracted in South America, chips and batteries are produced in Asia, and wiring harnesses or smaller assemblies are assembled in third countries with cheaper labor.
In the second half of the first decade of the 21st century, electric cars began to find their place in the sun. Replacing old batteries with lithium-ion technology gave them a real driving range, and Tesla, founded in 2003 and starting serial production of the Roadster in 2008, proved that an electric vehicle can be fast and attractive.
Although mass models like the Nissan Leaf or Mitsubishi i-MiEV appeared on the streets only at the end of the decade, it was during this period that the groundwork was laid for further electric vehicle development.
Lithuania entered the electric vehicle market through different doors
Over the last 16 years, both electric vehicles and cars in general have gradually become “smart.” With the transition to electric drives, Western manufacturers became dependent on Asian semiconductors, especially Taiwan, and China’s monopoly on battery cells and raw materials.
With this technological shift, Lithuania established itself not through mass passenger car production but through high value-added B2B niches: global electronics brand factories have emerged in the country, Lithuanian electric buses, commercial vehicle electric drives, smart charging infrastructure, and software solutions are developed and produced. All this makes Lithuania an important part of the European electromobility supply chain.
We could create one – but would it be profitable?
If Lithuania already has companies showing great potential, the natural question arises – what prevents taking one more step and producing our own light electric car?
Laurynas Jokužis, head of “Elinta Motors,” says that technically Lithuania is definitely capable of creating an electric car. The country’s strength lies in electronics, software, mechatronics, and manufacturing competencies. His company is already developing main electric drive and control systems and supplying them to European brands specializing in commercial vehicle manufacturing.
Representatives of “Altas Auto” also see no technical obstacles to creating a light electric car prototype. Giedrius Valuckas, director of “Progressive Business Solutions” and a member of LINPRA, broadly assesses Lithuania’s electric vehicle industry potential: according to him, high value-added e-drive, battery system, and software developers and electric vehicle manufacturers already operate in our country.
So, the question should not be “can we?” but “is it profitable?”
A prototype is one thing, mass production is quite another
The biggest challenge arises when moving from prototype to serial production. Huge investments are needed in the platform, production lines, safety tests, software, certification, supply chain, marketing, sales, and service network. And all this must pay off.
“The biggest challenge would not be technology, but finance and scale,” says L. Jokužis.
According to him, manufacturers producing hundreds of thousands or millions of electric cars per year can achieve such component costs that a small manufacturer simply cannot compete with directly.
G. Valuckas sees the problem even more broadly. He believes Lithuania is too small a country for a project of this scale. According to him, our domestic market is too limited to attract enough money for such a large project. He thinks such a project would require billion-euro investments.
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Why is it profitable to produce a bus, but not necessarily a passenger car?
The fact that Lithuania can create an electric car does not mean it would be wise to do so. This partly explains why our country’s companies focus more on commercial vehicle manufacturing. Here, the client cares not only about price – the vehicle must be adapted to a specific route, number of passengers, purpose, or operating conditions.
In the passenger car market, you don’t earn much from components, models and their technologies change quickly, so constant investment in new solutions is required. L. Jokužis identifies this as one of the reasons why “Elinta Motors” focuses on commercial transport.
“It is a completely different field where a smaller, flexible technology company can realistically compete with big manufacturers,” he says.
The example of “Altas Auto” shows how such a model works in practice. Electric buses are developed and produced in Lithuania, but not every component is attempted to be manufactured. A foreign manufacturer’s chassis – a “Mercedes-Benz” base, drive, and battery – is used, while the bus is designed, adapted for passengers, assembled, and tested in Lithuania.
How Lithuanian should a “Lithuanian” electric car be?
Here we face another dilemma – what do we actually call a Lithuanian electric car and what authenticity criteria should we apply to it?
Representatives of “Altas Auto” emphasize that even the largest manufacturers in the modern automotive and electric vehicle industry rely on international supply chains. Therefore, “Made in Lithuania” does not necessarily mean that every bolt, battery cell, or electronic component must be made in our country.
According to G. Valuckas, international automotive industry companies operate in our country, producing sensors, lighting and autonomous driving modules, wiring harnesses, and other components for global car manufacturers.
Among them, he highlights “Continental,” “HELLA” (“Forvia”), “Littelfuse,” “AQ Wiring,” and “PKC Group” (“Motherson”). On the Lithuanian capital side, he mentions the steps of the “Teltonika” group in the automotive and e-mobility market, as well as electric drive and vehicle manufacturers.
Maybe Lithuania doesn’t need its own “Tesla”?
Even if it is not profitable for Lithuania to produce an electric car for the mass market, does that mean our country should not consider creating its own electric car at all?
According to L. Jokužis, if Lithuania created a standard light electric car, it would have to compete directly with world-class brands whose production scales are simply unattainable for our country.
He emphasizes the same production model successfully developed in Lithuania to this day – niche projects. According to L. Jokužis, these should be electric cars with special technological and technical features, adapted for specific purposes: public transport, motorsport, or commercial needs.
G. Valuckas looks at this niche even more broadly. According to him, the electric car is increasingly becoming a “computer on wheels.” Here Lithuania, in his opinion, has something to offer. The country is already strong in the IT and electronics market, has competencies in cybersecurity, and develops control modules and other solutions.
Instead of trying to catch up with big car manufacturers on their own playing field, it may be more meaningful for Lithuania to look for areas where the advantage of a small country is flexibility and the ability to quickly test new solutions.
“Instead of competing for steel body stamping, we position Lithuania as a country where the most advanced e-mobility and autonomous transport solutions are born and tested,” says G. Valuckas.
The biggest obstacle to the future is not technology, but people
However, even choosing this path, a human resources problem arises. According to G. Valuckas, Lithuanian universities prepare too few highly qualified engineers, so we cannot keep up with industry growth. He says that currently about 6,000 engineers and technologists are missing in the sector.
Some specialists are already imported from abroad. About 65,000 people work in the engineering industry, so as the sector grows, training and attracting specialists becomes increasingly important.
Not a mass production, but a country of ideas
So the answer to the question why Lithuania still does not have its own electric car is quite paradoxical. Not because we cannot create it. In the global market, a good electric car alone is not enough. Lithuanian companies cannot yet implement such production scales.
Today, our strength lies not in trying to produce as many electric cars as possible. It lies in the ability to create a specific technology, component, vehicle, or solution that does not require a million-unit production series.
Perhaps, therefore, the question in the future will not be “When will Lithuania produce its own electric car?” but “What can we produce that the world’s largest manufacturers cannot or do not want to produce?”
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We are not a country of mass production, but of ideas and innovation.
