Car production falls again as nightmare year stretches on
Car production fell once again in October as the sector’s nightmare year showed no sign of ending.
Just 110,179 cars were built last month, down almost a fifth on the same month last year, according to new figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.
For the year as a whole, production has dropped 33.8 per cent in total, a shortfall of over 379,000 units.
As a result, the SMMT estimates that the sector has lost out on £10.8bn this year.
And with the end of the Brexit transition period just 37 days away, the industry body has warned that worse could be yet to come.
The failure to do a free trade deal with the EU would see the industry face tariffs that could cost it £55bn over the next five years.
Commenting on the latest figures, SMMT chief exec Mike Hawes said: “These figures are yet more bad news for an industry battered by Covid, Brexit and, now, the unprecedented challenge of a complete shift to electrified vehicles in under a decade.
“While the sector has demonstrated its resilience, we need the right conditions to remain competitive both as a manufacturing nation and a progressive market.
“Above all, we must have a Brexit deal, one with zero tariffs, zero quotas and rules of origin that benefit existing products and the next generation of zero emission cars, as well as a phase in period that allows this transition to be ‘made in Britain’.”
As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, factories were forced to shut over the spring and manufacturing is yet to recover in full.
Due to the production shortfall, UK manufacturers are on track this year to make less than 1m cars for the first time since 2009.