UK Car Production DROPS by 14% in February – the last month of ‘Pre-Covid’ comparisons

New car production in the UK fell again in February, by 14 per cent, in the last month of comparisons with pre-Covid numbers.

It’s hardly a surprise to learn that car production in the UK fell again in February with lockdown measures still in place (although factories are open) and export issues to be ironed-out post- Brexit.

But a drop of 14 per cent pales in to insignificance compared to the 99.7 per cent drop we saw in April last year (when car factories were shut) and is almost half the drop we saw in January, with 105,800 cars built, some 17,163 fewer than in February 2020.

The biggest drop was in cars built for UK consumption which were down by almost 35 per cent, but with car showrooms shut until 12 April that’s no big surprise, but cars built for export fell by only 8.1 per cent with the majority heading for EU markets.

Once again, sales of car with some sort of electric help – BEVs, PHEVs and Hybrids – rose by 25.3 per cent as more and more cars come with a bit, or a lot, of electrickery.

But it’s next month’s figures that will start to get more interesting as we compare production this year to production in Covid-affected times, with an absolute guarantee that April’s figures will show the biggest year-on-year rise ever recorded.