When Slovakia was part of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, the cars it made were noisy, thirsty and slow by western standards at the time. But when Volkswagen bought the car-maker Skoda, that was the beginning of a major change.

Now, Slovakia makes almost a million cars a year and with Volvo opening a factory here in 2027, it’ll be a quarter of a million more. Extraordinary for a country of five million people.

We visit a factory and find out why this small nation is attracting so much car industry investment.

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Presented and produced by John Laurenson

(Picture: Workers on a production line in a car factory, Slovakia. Credit: BBC/John Laurenson)