Car production falls to lowest level in decades
UK car production has fallen to almost its lowest level since 1954 last year. In 2024, just 779,584 cars rolled off production lines in the UK. This is down 13.9% from the previous year.
It the pandemic and lockdowns saw lower levels.
This confirms, The Independent says, both “the frailty of both consumer sentiment at home, and of the weakness of world demand,” as around eighty percent of cars built in Britain were exported.
Sales to the EU and China, the largest overseas market, were down by a quarter and a fifth respectively. However, the American market saw sales climb by 38.5%. Fears of future tariffs are believed to have boosted these “to some degree.”
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has also said that the switch to electric cars has also affected car production numbers. It pointed to factories having to retool for the changeover as being a temporary cause of the slowdown.
Nissan, which has a plant in the UK, and Jaguar are both preparing a new generation of electric cars. This is in response to the zero-emissions mandate which says that sales of new petrol and diesel cars will be reduced to 20% of the market by 2030 and a complete phase-out of all combustion engine vehicles including hybrids in 2035.
The UK is currently slightly below Slovakia in global car production numbers. China leads with an annual input of 27 million vehicles. This is more than the US, Japan, India, and Germany put together.
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