Martin Placek
Research expert covering transportation and electronics
Automotive manufacturing industry in the UK - statistics & facts
In the mid-20th century, the automobile manufacturing industry in the United Kingdom (UK) was the second largest in the world. Today, production mainly focuses on a few remaining British prestige brands and commercial vehicles while also housing plants of foreign manufacturers such as Nissan, Ford, and BMW. Still, the automotive industry remains a vital part of the UK economy. The motor industry contributed about 14.1 billion British pounds to the country’s economy and was an employer to more than 782,000 people in 2021. The manufacturing sector of the UK automotive industry provided around 182,000 jobs alone that year.
Car production in 2020 the worst since 1984
Passenger car production in the United Kingdom fell between 2003 and 2008 as rail transport took over some passenger transport demand. Furthermore, the industry was hit hard by the global financial crisis in 2008: car production fell by over 30 percent in 2009. After recovering from the subsequent recession, vehicle manufacturing faced new challenges. Weakening demand for motor vehicles internationally, Brexit uncertainty, and the Dieselgate scandal contributed to less activity in the industry between 2016 and 2019. Around 1,000 automotive manufacturing jobs were lost during this time, with more expected to follow. The COVID-19 pandemic was particularly difficult for the industry. Car output was almost 30 percent lower in 2020 than the previous year, totaling around 900,000 passenger cars and 66,000 commercial vehicles, the lowest since 1984. As a result, some 10,000 jobs were lost in the UK automotive sector in 2020. Cascading effects of the pandemic, especially the global chip shortage and disruptions to supply chains worldwide, caused further problems for the industry. The year 2021 did not bring much improvement either: production output decreased further by about seven percent year-on-year as manufacturers struggled with labor shortages.UK auto production largely export-oriented
Most of the vehicles manufactured in the UK in 2021—some 706,000 passenger cars and 38,000 commercial vehicles—were exported from the country. The European Union was the largest market for UK-manufactured vehicle exports, both in terms of passenger cars and commercial vehicles. In 2021, the 27 member states of the union were the destination for every second passenger car exported from the UK.
