Jaguar Land Rover drives 2014 rise in UK car production

UK car production rose in 2014 by 1.2% – despite problems in Russia and Europe – with Jaguar Land Rover the big success – up 7.3% on 2013.

Car sales in the UK for 2014 were the best in a decade, but that reflects the recovery of the UK economy and includes all cars – imported and UK manufactured.

But as well as more cars being sold in the UK in 2014 than for a decade, UK car manufacturing has also had a better year than could have been expected, especially with a hamstrung Euro Zone and problems in Russia after sanctions.

Overall, car manufacturing in the UK in 2014 rose by 1.2 per cent to 1,28,148 cars, despite the number of cars built in the UK by Honda and Toyota falling.

That was balanced out by a very strong performance from Jaguar Land Rover which managed to increase its UK production by 7.3 per cent to 499,507, second in the UK only to Nissan (500,238) and well ahead of MINI (178,993) in third spot.

Not only has the volume of cars increased to a seven year high, but that value of those cars has doubled in a decade too.

Mike Hawes, SMMT boss, said:

UK car manufacturing is now more diverse than ever, with a unique combination of volume, premium and specialist brands giving our products truly global appeal.

This is epitomised by the doubling of car export values in the decade from 2005 to 2014.

The export market has also changed significantly since manufacturing volumes in the UK were last at this level, with Europe accounting for a little over half of exports in 2014 (almost two-thirds in 2007) and China rising from a mere 1 per cent of exports in 2007 to a significant 12 per cent in 2014.

It also looks likely that manufacturing will increase going forward – with new models already coming off the line at MINI, JLR and Nissan, and Vauxhall gearing up for the new Astra at Ellesmere Port later in 2015 – and even break the all time car manufacturing record, set in the 1970s, by 2017.