UK car production drops by 3.8 per cent in September

UK production fell by 3.8 per cent for September, bringing the total year-to-date drop to 15.6 per cent.

Figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) for the ninth month of the year show a total of 122,256 cars were built in the country — down from 127,051 from September 2018. Of those, 24,121 were for the home market — representing a 5.1 per cent drop compared with the same period last year — while exports fell from 101,621 to 98,135.

So far in 2019, 989,174 cars have been produced in the UK, down from 1,171,930 for the first nine months of the year. Eighty per cent of all cars built so far this year have been for export markets, a slight drop from 81.2 per cent for the same period in 2018.

Political challenges, mainly the possibility of a no-deal Brexit, have been blamed by the SMMT for the decline in the figure of cars produced in the UK.

Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said: “Another bitterly disappointing month reflects domestic and international market contraction. Most worrying of all though is the continued threat of a no-deal Brexit, something which has caused international investment to stall and cost UK operations hundreds of millions of pounds, money that would have better been spent in meeting the technological challenges facing the global industry.

“A general election may ultimately provide some certainty but does not yet remove the spectre of no-deal which will continue to inhibit the UK industry’s prospects unless we can agree and implement a new, ambitious and permanent relationship that safeguards free and frictionless trade.”