UK Car Production DOWN by 8.2% in 2025 – thanks mainly to Jaguar Land Rover

Car manufacturing in the UK fell by 8.2% in 2025 – the lowest in a decade – due mainly to cyber attacks and tariffs.

2025 was a bit of a torrid year for car manufacturing in the UK, with some particularly poor months, like September down by 27.1% and May down by a whopping 31.5%, so the news that 2025 was the lowest production numbers for a decade comes as no surprise, although perhaps surprising that the annual drop was only 8.2%.

But if you think the 8.2% drop in car production was bad for UK PLC, it’s nothing compared to CV production, which fell by a massive 62.3%, thanks mainly to Stellantis shutting its Luton Plant.

A variety of factors, including tariff nonsense and restructuring, were partly the cause, but the biggest factor was the cyberattack on Jaguar Land Rover and Jaguar pulling up the ramps and stopping production completely ahead of its plan to take on Bentley with pricey EVs; the drop in JLR production was 56,000 units, almost exactly the total annual drop in production from 2024.

The bulk of cars exported went to Europe (56.7%), followed by the UK (15%) and China (6.3%), with exports accounting for the majority (78%) and the rest staying in the UK.

Mike Hawes, SMMT Chief Executive, said:

2025 was the toughest year in a generation for UK vehicle manufacturing. Structural changes, new trade barriers, and a cyber attack that stopped production at one of the UK’s most important manufacturers combined to constrain output, but the outlook for 2026 is one of recovery