UK Car Manufacturing DOWN by 15.5% in May

Car manufacturing in the UK continued to fall in May, a 12-month trend, with production down by 15.5 per cent to 116,035.

Nothing continues to improve for ever, and car production in the UK is no exception.

After a golden period where car manufacturing rose seemingly inexorably, car production in the UK has now been falling for a year, and the figures for May 2019 continue the trend.

A 15.5 per cent decline in car making in the UK in May saw total production of 116,035 units – a fall of 21,239 on May 2018 – with around 80 per cent of cars built heading overseas and around 20 per cent staying in the UK.

The drop is far lower than last month’s almost 50 per cent decline, but that was down to the decision by many car makers in the UK to close production ahead of Brexit. Which didn’t happen, although the shutdowns did.

Of course, Brexit concerns are a factor in the year-long drop in car making, but a lot of it has to do with the demonisation of diesel-engined cars (which is daft – we should worry about old diesels, not new diesels), tariff woes and more.

Mike Hawes, SMMT boss, said:

12 consecutive months of decline for UK car manufacturing is a serious concern and underlines yet again the importance of securing a Brexit deal quickly. The sector is facing multiple seismic challenges simultaneously: technological, environmental and economic. The ongoing political instability and uncertainty over our future overseas trade relationships, most notably with Europe, is not helping.