UK car manufacturing falls

However, it’s not all good news for the UK car industry; according to figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), production fell by 28.7 percent in November 2021 to 75,756 units. This marks the fifth consecutive month of decline and represents the worst November performance since 1984 as UK car makers continue to wrestle with the worldwide shortage of semiconductors.

“These are incredibly worrying figures, underscoring the severity of the situation facing the automotive industry,” said Mike Hawes, SMMT’s chief executive, “Covid is impacting supply chains massively, causing global shortages – especially of semiconductors – which is likely to affect the sector throughout next year. With an increasingly negative economic backdrop, rising inflation and Covid resurgence at home and abroad, the circumstances are the toughest in decades.”

However, continuing the recent trend, British production of battery electric, plug-in hybrid and hybrid cars took a record share of production, accounting for around a third (32.7 percent) of all cars made in the month, and more than a quarter (25.5 percent) over the year to date. Battery electric vehicle output, in particular, was up in November by 52.9 percent to 10,359 units, hitting a new high of 13.7 percent of all production, more than double the level a year ago.

For the year to date, UK car plants have turned out 797,261 units, some 432,794 less than pre-pandemic 2019 and 667,441 off the five-year pre-Covid average for the period of 1,464,702 cars.