UK car production dipped by nearly 8% in the first half of 2024 as the country’s biggest manufacturers refreshed crucial model lines and invested in electrification.
New figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) reveal that the UK built 416,074 cars in the six months to July – 34,094 fewer (7.6%) than in the same period last year.
The decline was particularly sharp in June, when output dropped by 26.6%.
However, the SMMT highlights that this decline was “expected as manufacturers retool lines to make electrified models following some £23.7 billion of UK investment announced last year”.
Key UK-built cars, including the Mini Cooper, Nissan Qashqai and Nissan Juke, have been refreshed in recent months - a process that necessitates some degree of factory downtime for retooling, staff training and homologation.
JLR also ended production of three of its UK-built Jaguars – the XE, XF and F-Type – in Castle Bromwich, production of the second-generation Nissan Leaf came to an end in Sunderland, and there was a lull at Aston Martin as the new DBX and Vantage came on stream.
Having reevaluated its 2024 forecast in light of the latest dip, the SMMT now estimates that the UK will produce around 910,000 cars this year, down 9.3% on 2023 - which, it says, “illustrates how the EV transition is impacting UK light vehicle production”.
Output will head back up towards 1.1 million units in 2028, the SMMT says, when half of all cars and vans produced in the UK will be electric.
By then, Mini will be building the electric Cooper and Aceman at Cowley, Nissan will have three EVs on the line at Sunderland, Jaguar production at Solihull will be all-electric and Land Rover will have at least four EVs spread across Solihull and Halewood.
Meanwhile, lower-volume luxury marques such as Aston Martin, Bentley and possibly McLaren will have started building their debut zero-emission offerings.
Questions remain over exactly when Toyota plans to introduce an electric car to its plant in Burnaston, Derbyshire - one of the UK’s busiest – but the hybrid-powered Corolla that’s currently built there will no longer be able to be sold in the UK after Labour’s proposed ban on combustion sales in 2030.
The SMMT says that with “the right political, industrial and economic conditions” – by which it means the incentivisation of private EV sales, stable trade agreements with key export markets and support for local manufacturers – the UK could build more than nine million zero-emission ‘light vehicles’ by 2035.
Add your comment