The UK’s vehicle output dropped by 35.9% last month after a cyber attack on JLR – the nation’s biggest employer in the automotive trade – left the company unable to build cars.
According to figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), the decline was caused by the hack alone, as all other major UK manufacturers – among them Nissan, Stellantis and Toyota – reported increases in output.
As of 16 October, JLR had completely resumed operations, with Halewood (responsible for the Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Discovery Sport) the last of its factories to come back online.
The overal impact of the hack on the UK economy has been estimated at £1.9 billion by the Cyber Monitoring Centre, an independent non-profit organisation.
JLR CEO Adrian Mardell recently said: "We know there is much more to do but our recovery is firmly under way."
A total of 54,319 vehicles rolled off factory lines across the UK last month, a significant reduction on the 84,682 recorded last September.
So far this year, 582,250 vehicles have been built in the UK, down by 15.2% compared with the same point in 2024.
Production for the domestic market fell by 34.1% while exports dropped by 24.5%.
Exports accounted for just over three in four cars assembled in the UK last month, with the EU, the US, Turkey, Japan and South Korea the top five foreign markets.
The negative September result came as “no surprise” to SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes, due to the downtime at JLR factories. “While the situation has improved, the sector remains under immense pressure,” he said.
The SMMT has warned that the UK government’s move to end the Employee Car Ownership Scheme (ECOS) next April could hit output by 20,000 units – equivalent to around around 2.5% of the entirety of last year’s production.
The ECOS allows employees of car makers and dealers to buy new cars at highly discounted rates, with very low monthly payments on little-to-no interest, on the condition that they will sell them back after around six months or 6000 miles. Because the car is owned by the employee rather than the business, the driver is not required to pay benefit-in-kind tax or national insurance contributions.
As previously reported by Autocar, Labour has sought to close “contrived car ownership schemes” in a bid to generate greater income from taxes. The Treasury previously estimated that ending ECOS would raise £275 million in the 2026-27 tax year.
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