UK car production BACK UP in October

After falling for the first time since April in September, October’s UK car production numbers are back up – by 7.4%.

UK car production has continued to improve since April – albeit with a drop in September – with the latest figures showing October’s output rising by 7.6 per cent, although still only around half the numbers pre-Covid. 

Production for the UK market rose by a significant 12.5 per cent and export production by 6.3 per cent, driven by increases of 26.4 per cent to the US, 68.7 per cent to South Korea, 125.4 per cent to Australia and a huge 1,298.7 per cent to Turkey.

But take those figures with a big pinch of salt as the actual numbers involved are small, and more relevant is a drop of 2.7 per cent to the EU.

Unsurprisingly, the production of electrified cars – which includes EVs, PHEVs and EVs – rose again, this time by 20.3 per cent to 24,115.

Mike Hawes, SMMT boss, said:

A return to growth for UK car production in October is welcome – though output is still down significantly on pre-Covid levels amid turbulent component supply. Getting the sector back on track in 2023 is a priority, given the jobs, exports and economic contribution the automotive industry sustains.

Clearly, the Covid hangover is still affecting production, but even when supply chains get back to normal, if they ever do, we’re not entirely convinced – with inflation embedded in the economy and car prices and car finance deals becoming less affordable – that we’ll ever return to the car production numbers we saw before Covdid (and Ukraine too) devastated world economies.