UK Car Production Drops Almost 40%
Image Source Automotive News Europe
July Figures
The UK Car Production figures for July have been released. The production dropped a staggering 37.5 per cent year on year in July. The main reasons given for this are the semiconductor shortage, and the pandemic causing a lack of employees. Some factories even went as far as to change their hours this summer to accommodate the drop in UK car production. Less that 55,000 cars were built. These figures are lowest since 1956. The export of cars counted towards almost 85% of all cars produced in the UK. Whilst were looking at the statics, a whopping 26% of all cars produced were either hybrid or electric.
Image Source Jaguar Landrover Media
2021 Total Uk Car Production
Now we’re going to look at the broader picture. The entire years figures so far, opposed to just July. 2021 is seeing a steady increase in production. Currently manufacturing is 18% up form last years numbers. 2020 was horrific for UK car Production due to the full force of the pandemic. However if we look back to before Covid, we find we are still below expectations. Comparing our current figures to 2019 shows us that we’re still nearly 30% down from 2019 numbers. There has been just over 550,000 cars produced this year so far, compared to the 774,000 built in 2019.
Image Source The Week
The Future Of Manufacturing
The Chief of SMM had the following to say on the situation in relation to the figures. He says they “lay bare the extremely tough conditions”. He also said that the semiconductor shortage showing “little sign of abating”. Needless to say this is a bleak outlook. It is important to understand that the impact form the semiconductor shortages impact many businesses in many industries. The UK car production and its manufactures have to compete with not just each other, but many other companies for the semiconductors that are available. A lot of Tech companies are also fighting to get their hands on the competent. With the manufacturing industry seemingly taking blow after blow its hard to pin where its future will lie in the UK.
What Does This Mean?
The short answer is that it is damaging to both the car market and the economy as a whole in Britain. Car exports and sales are a part of the countries revenue stream. With Britain being the founders of Jaguar, Aston Martin, Range Rover & Mini Cooper. This means that there’s a lot of cars that owe their identity to the UK. This is particularly alarming when their manufacturing is at an all time low. Britain is also one of the few countries that drives on the left side of the road. Because of this their cars have the steering wheel on the right, also referred to as a right hand drive or RHD for short. Since these cars are considered uncommon and less desirable in other parts of the world it’s worrying that Britain is producing less vehicles. They have an almost complete monopoly over their own consumers, leading many to think that there would be no drop in manufacturing. The natural conclusions to jump to is that the cars they manufacture are in less demand for export and that the British people are not buying new cars as frequently as needed.
Will It Improve?
All markets seem more volatile than ever. Markets were recovering but with a recession on the horizon people are spending less and less on luxuries such as new cars and the such. With this in mind we have to hope that the car market can return to its former status but for the foreseeable future it is unlikely.
