Car Production DOWN in August by 10.2% – and September will be far worse

New figures from the SMMT show car production in the UK in August 2025 fell by 10.2%, and total vehicle production the lowest since 1956.

UK car production has managed to grow in June and July despite a very difficult economic climate, although still far short of pre-COVID levels.

But August goes into reverse, with car manufacturing down by 10.2% to just 37,072, and if you take into account a 73.2% drop in CV  production, the total drop delivers the lowest vehicle production levels since 1956.

Of course, the SMMT rolls out the usual mitigation factor for what is traditionally the quietest month of the year, citing model transitions and slow economic growth. However, that applied in 2024 too.

The production split between Home and Export saw production for the UK actually rise by 11.5%, but with exports accounting for 80.7% of production, a drop of 14.2% in export production more than wiped out the UK growth.

Unsurprisingly, production of electrified cars – Hybrid, PHEV and BEV – rose by 40.9% to 16,830, in the process taking a 45.4% share of total production.

August’s figures may be poor, but they’ll be nothing compared to what we’re going to see for September, with JLR effectively out of the picture for at least September after their Cyber attack, which is likely to put a 30,000 unit dent in figures – almost as much as August’s total production.

Mike Hawes, SMMT CEO, said:

August is always a low volume month due to planned summer maintenance, but the focus is now on September’s performance, and the likely impact of the cyberattack at Britain’s biggest automotive employer