Car production in the UK up by 65 percent

23 February 2010

Car production in Britain has increased by 65% from last year, the industrys fastest rate since Prime Minister Harold Wilsons term.

Car production in Britain has increased by 65% from last year, the industrys fastest rate since Prime Minister Harold Wilsons term.

At surface level, this figure seems outstanding, but a deeper analysis of the figures shows that the revival of the UK motor industry is still premature as production is still down by 30% compared to the output two years ago.

Reports from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) reveal that there were 101,190 cars produced last January, which marks the highest increase in January car production since 1976. These figures have been enhanced by production at Nissan from Sunderland, Jaguar Land Rover from Merseyside and the Midlands, Toyota from Derbyshire, and BMW MINI from Cowley.

However, several car plants in UK car plants were inoperative at the end of last year, as manufacturers slashed their cost by shutting down operations from Christmas to New Year.

Thus, it is perhaps more applicable to compare the latest figures to the production level of 148,644 in January 2008, which itself was a high-point this century.

An SMMT spokesman said that manufacturers benefited much from the governments car scrappage schemes, and at least 72% of the cars manufactured in the UK are for export. Despite the fact that the car scrappage scheme will finish by the end of March, SMMT expects the recovery to continue.

Nonetheless, the SMMT only anticipates a marginal increase in the UKs total car production this year, predicting just more than one million compared to 999,460 last year.

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