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‘Car production in the UK has been cut by 50% in just 5 years’


For now, life is sweet for two of Britain’s greatest fortunes – Bentley and Gordon Murray Automotive (GMA). It could even be argued that, despite the ongoing problems in our pandemic-ravaged world, these two have never been so good.

Last Wednesday I witnessed British and German Bentley boys and girls in high spirits as they spoke with genuine enthusiasm about the existence or the impending hybrid and pure electric products, the record year they just enjoyed, the UK’s ambitious manufacturing plans, the massive financial (and unsubsidized) investment in British soil, plus a ton of more optimism. Know that feeling when you can’t help but feel proud to be British? That’s what I got from Bentley a few days ago.

And the next day, I saw more ambition, inspiration and positivity – thanks to GMA dare to be different and it was just announced Supercar T.33. Like Bentley, Professor Gordon Murray’s world-class company is Brit-born, bred and based – and still builds cars in Blighty. Don’t like what?

But while this pair of companies with no genuine British connection are running very efficiently at their respective factories north of Crewe and deep south in Windlesham and Dunsfold, there are too many factories. Car production is struggling in other parts of the UK. Sky-high production numbers are their problem, and the Association of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) recently did not hesitate to highlight the fact that 2021 is the bleakest year for UK car manufacturing since 1956. The group has blamed Covid, the lockdown, lack of microchips and staffing problems (but interestingly not Brexit) for this massive cut in the number of cars built with labels or boards’ Made in England’ is disappearing rapidly.

To me, the comparison between 1956 and 2021 is irrelevant. Sorry, but the industrial landscape in the UK and the rest of the car manufacturing world has changed quite a bit over the last 65 years! More concerning, and more disturbing, is how many UK factories here have consistently cut their car production levels over the past five years – most of which are Covid, pandemic, chip and staff shortage, and no lock.

In 2016, the UK hit an impressive 1.723 million cars, and has its eyes on 2.0 million. Then from 2017-2019, and with uncanny consistency, the numbers went down, down, down – to just 1.3 million. When the curse of Covid hit in 2020, production dropped to just 921,000. Then last year, things went from bad to worse – 860,000 tiny cars were made by what SMMT calls six mainstream manufacturers and more than 60 professional car builders. .

So that’s a sharp drop of exactly 50% in exactly 5 years. Huh!

Honestly, if we just blame Covid and chip-related problems for this dubious drop, we’re really kidding ourselves. There are several other major, disruptive and damaging elements at play here. I hope I’m wrong, but since production volumes have been brutally cut in half in just 60 months, mass car production in the UK has been pretty much sabotaged since 2016. But how? By whom? And why?

Test Latest new car sales figures here…



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