UK car production falls to 70-year low

In April, British car factories produced disastrously few cars. The reasons are uncertainty with American duties and bad timing of Easter holidays.

Here's What We Know

According to the Motor Manufacturers and Traders Association (SMMT), car production collapsed by 15.8 per cent to 59,203 units. This is the worst April result since 1952, unless you count the quarantined months of 2020.

The start of the year was also a failure - it was worse only in 2009, when the world was dealing with the aftermath of the financial crisis due to the US mortgage bubble.

Late Easter played a cruel joke - in April production was down compared to March, when factories, on the contrary, were working at full speed in preparation for the holidays. The situation was aggravated by the change of model lines and falling demand in key export markets.

Passenger cars were produced 8.6% less - 56,534 units. The situation with commercial vehicles is even worse: the output fell by 68.6% to only 2,669 units. The main reason is the closure of one of the plants.

Car exports fell by 10.1%, while production for the domestic market dropped by 3.3%. However, the domestic market has always accounted for a smaller share of total production.

Deliveries to the two main markets, the EU and the US, fell by 19.1 per cent and 2.7 per cent respectively. Meanwhile, the EU still takes more than half of all UK exports, while the US gets 16.5 per cent. Meanwhile, exports to China and Turkey grew by 44 per cent and 31.2 per cent.

Source: Wardsauto