Great Britain: Car production continues to fall

British car production fell further last year and only reached the level of 1956. The industry association SMMT blamed this primarily on the global shortage of semiconductors, but also on the closure of two factories and the effects of the corona lockdowns in China supply chains.

Production for the domestic market increased significantly by 9.4 percent compared to 2021. However, exports fell by 14 percent. This hits the manufacturers in Great Britain particularly hard, because four fifths of the cars produced are exported. More than half of this, in turn, goes to the EU, while exports to the international community fell by 10 percent.

41 percent fewer cars manufactured than in 2019

A total of 775,014 cars were manufactured in Great Britain last year, which was 9.8 percent less than in the previous year and 40.5 percent less than in 2019. Production had already fallen significantly in 2021. For your orientation: In 1972, 1.97 million cars were made in Great Britain. In December 2022 alone, production fell by 17.9 percent compared to the previous year, after the numbers had increased slightly for the first time in a long time in October and November.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) was pleased with the production of electric vehicles, which had risen to a record 234,066 vehicles. A good 30 percent of all cars manufactured in Great Britain were therefore fully electric or hybrid. Since 2017, the value of exported e-cars has increased from 1.3 to more than 10 billion pounds (around 11.34 billion euros). The British government intends to ban new combustion engines from 2030 onwards.

British battery cells required

The potential for this division is obvious, said SMMT boss Mike Hawes. He demanded: “Now the right decisions must be made.” This includes a strategy to expand domestic battery production and push the switch to e-vehicles across the industry. Just last week, the start-up “Britishvolt” filed for bankruptcy, which had planned a factory for battery cells in north-east England. Almost 300 jobs are affected.

(mfz)