Car manufacturing in the UK set a 17-year record in 2016, and despite some industry uncertainty over Brexit, output is being tipped to keep rising and to reach an all-time high before 2020, according to the car industry mouthpiece, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.
Revealing the full year's figures, SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes said car production from 15 UK car manufacturers rose 8.5% to 1,722,698 units, the highest total since 1999. He described the industry as "in rude health" and predicted that the all-time record of 1.92 cars, set in 1972, would soon be beaten. Of the 2016 total, 1,354,216 cars (or about 80%) of production was exported, a total that beat last year's record, making car manufacture one of the country's largest and most dependable export earners. Over the past five years, average local content of locally made cars had risen from 36% to 41%, he revealed, another indicator of success.
Jaguar Land Rover and Nissan, who issued their 2016 figures in separate, similarly timed announcements, both played a major part in the UK's 2016 success. JLR held onto its position as the UK's biggest manufacturer, with an 8.0% production uplift to 544,401 cars, the rise driven by an updated line-up that included Jaguar's Jaguar F-Pace SUV and the all-new Land Rover Discovery. NIssan's production at its mammoth Sunderland car-making complex was close behind at 507,430 units, and included new records for Qashqai and Leaf production.
Adding a note of caution, Mike Hawes pointed out that the bullish figures were the result of investment decisions "made three or four years ago", and not of a post-Brexit bounce as suggested in some media commentary. There were strong indications that car makers and suppliers were currently postponing non-critical investment decisions to see what happened, he said, which made clarity on future trading conditions vital.
"High-class engineering, advanced technology and a workforce committed to quality have helped turned our industry around," he said. "Today, the UK is one of the most productive places in Europe to make cars. We want trade deals, but they must be right and not rushed."
The SMMT figures showed that the UK's top-selling export model in 2016 was the Nissan Qashqai, with the Toyota Auris and Mini in second and third spots. Five of the top 10 were JLR models, the Range Rover Sport (5th), Range Rover Evoque (6th) and Land Rover Discovery Sport (7th). The Jaguar F-Pace and Jaguar XE filled 9th and 10th spots respectively.
Read more: Opinion: Success cannot obscure future challenges
Top 10 exported British cars:
1. Nissan Qashqai
2. Toyota Auris
3. Mini
4. Vauxhall Astra
5. Range Rover Sport
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Just a thought but if the UK
TStag wrote:
Tariffs can be asymmetrical - if the EU imposes max allowable under WHO most favoured nation status, the UK doesn't have to follow suit for the benefit of its consumers. If trade is constrained by tariffs on exports and imports, the £ is likely to fall, counteracting the impact of tariffs on exports. Moving production is not quick, cheap or easy, bear in mind that the UK is the most important EU market for most of the manufacturers based here (i.e. Japanese) and that is likely to be undermined due to the currency/tariff situation of moving, for others 'Made in the UK' is a key USP (Aston, Bentley, RR). Also, it may have been usurped in headlines recently but the future of the Euro itself is far from resolved (although Trump's EU ambassador has mentioned it), shifting production wholesale will involve jumping from one uncertainty into another uncertainty.
TStag wrote:
Britain imports far more cars from the EU than the other way around, so they have as as least much to lose.
A 10% duty will not have car manufacturing leaving the UK nor send prices sky high. Most will absorb the 10% as they do with currency fluctuations, or pass just a part of it on.
Car makers like to pressure governments to get financial concessions. The media write a load of hysterical rubbish to get you reading their articles. Those with anti Brexit sentiments want to scaremonger people. The SMMT is anything but objective on the subject so take their press releases with a grain of salt.
Productivity is high in UK car plants. Britain is a great place to build cars and will continue to be so.
RayCee wrote:
There aren't going to be any tariffs. The UK is Germany's biggest export market, not just for cars but in lots of fields. No other country appreciates the German reputation for quality and reliability so much as we do. Think of Bosch, Siemens, Neff, Bayer, Adidas, Staedtler, BASF, Continental. Everything form pencils to trainers to power tools, to kitchen appliances, to pharmaceuticals, we lap it up.
The German manufacturing industry will tell Merkel, "no tariffs to UK trade", she'll tell the EU, and when Germany tells the other twenty-six nations this is how it's going to be, they do as they're told. Especially since Germany is paying for half of them to keep their heads above water. The Germans cannot afford for us switch to buying all that stuff from Japan, or China, or Korea, or America. They'd all love to sell it to us, and if the high price of buying German got too high that's what would happen, so no tariffs will ever be imposed.
JLR need to add another Disco
If JLR launch the Mid sized
Ignoring for a moment that some production will also go to Slovakia JLR also plan to build out the I-Pace, new Evoque, Defender range and may add another Disco. So I can easily see JLR hitting a million units a year by about the end of the decade.
Not bad for a company that the government refused financial help only a few years ago during the downturn..... maby the Government can consider that as part of their 'industrial strategy'
What strategy ?
Certainly would have proven a better bet than the Governments