Number of cars being made in Britain drops to the lowest level this year

Car production at UK factories slumped last month as growing exports failed to offset the largest decline in domestic demand seen this year, new industry figures have showed.

Some 161,490 new cars rolled off assembly lines at UK motor factories in November, which is 7,757 fewer cars than last year, or a decline of 4.6 per cent.

The drop-off was triggered by a lack of demand at home, where UK car manufacturing was down by a whopping 28.1 per cent compared to the same month last year.

This is the largest decline of 2017 and means that nearly 10,000 fewer cars were produced for UK buyers last month compared to November 2016, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said.

The industry body blamed the sharp decline on confusion created by new taxation on diesel cars as well as uncertainty and lower consumer confidence created by the UK’s departure from the European Union.

‘Brexit uncertainty, coupled with confusion over diesel taxation and air quality plans, continues to impact domestic demand for new cars and, with it, production output,’ said Mike Hawes, the chief executive of SMMT.

However, exports continued to grow last month, with 137,214 new cars rolling off production lines destined to overseas buyers, an increase of 1.3 per cent on the same month last year.

Nearly eight of out of 10 cars built in the UK are now destined for one of 160 global markets, the SMMT said, or about 1.25million cars produced for overseas out of a total of more 1.5million cars made on British shores in the year to date.

While export volumes remain stable, production for the home market is down nine per cent, resulting in overall output falling two per cent since January.