UK Car Production UP in July by 8.6% – but DOWN 46.4% on pre-Covid levels

Car production in the UK rose by 8.6 per cent in July – the third month of growth in a row – but is still down by 46.4 per cent on pre-Covid levels.

UK car production has been hard hit by the Covid pandemic and its fallout, both with lockdowns and supply-chain shortages, but we’re starting to see small signs that the shortages stymying production are starting to ease.

UK car production actually started to rise in May, and now we get the July production numbers showing production rose by 8.6 per cent, the third monthly rise in a row.

But before you get too excited and expect ridiculous waiting times for a new car to return to sensible levels, it’s worth noting that despite three months of increased production, numbers are still 46.4 per cent lower than pre-Covid levels.

The July numbers show that the increase in production mainly fed the domestic market, with numbers up by 40.7 per cent, with exports – which account for a whopping 80 per cent of production – only rising by 2.8 per cent, with some markets, like the EU and US, actually falling, although exports to China and Japan rose significantly.

As you’d expect, because there’s an impetus to prioritise them, the manufacture of BEVs, PHEVs and HEVs rose by a chunk, with BEVs, in particular, doing well with a 65.9 per cent increase.

Mike Hawes, SMMT boss, said:

A third consecutive month of growth for UK car production is, of course, welcome and gives some hope that the supply chain issues blighting the sector may finally be starting to ease. But other challenges remain, not least energy costs which are increasing at alarming rates. If we are to attract much needed investment to drive the production of zero emission vehicles, urgent action is needed to mitigate these costs to make the UK more competitive for manufacturing.