UK car production edged up in May
The number of cars built in UK factories increased as expected last month, but only by 1.3 per cent, new figures show.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said 137,225 cars rolled off the production lines in May following a 'marked decline' in the same month last year when several plants adjusted production schedules to prepare for a raft of new and updated models.
The biggest UK car maker is Jaguar Land Rover, which has plants at Solihull, Castle Bromwich and Halewood on Merseyside. It makes it engines at the i54 site in Wolverhampton, where around 1,600 people work. Around 80 per cent of the cars it makes are sold abroad.
But the luxury carmaker has seen a slowdown in manufacturing this year, cutting 1,000 agency jobs at Solihull. And it is moving production of its Land Rover Discovery to a new factory in Slovakia next year making way for a major revamp of the Solihull site.
Nationwide, production for export dipped by 1.5 per cent, said the SMMT, with 107,307 cars destined for overseas markets and making up 78.2 per cent of UK automotive production.
But manufacturing for domestic buyers grew by 12.8 per cent last month, reversing a decline of equal proportion in the same month in 2017.
In the year to date, total output stands at 705,603 cars, down by 2.9 per cent on the same period last year.
As well as JLR, the UK is home to major car plants run by Toyota, Nissan, Honda, BMW – which makes the Mini at Oxford – and Vauxhall. It is also home to luxury and niche car makers like Aston Martin, Bentley, McLaren, Morgan and Rolls-Royce.
Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said: "Following the significant decline in output in May last year as several manufacturers geared up to deliver new models, growth this month was to be expected.
"For this to continue, we need to ensure UK car plants are able to attract future investment, and this will depend upon maintaining the competitive conditions that have helped drive the industry's success in recent years.
"Given our dependency on the EU as our biggest customer and supplier, that means retaining the benefits of the single market and membership of the customs union - the minimum requirement for friction-less trade."
