UK Car Production Plummets

UK Car production down 47.5% in December

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We knew that car sales had a rocky ride in the last quarter of 2008. And we knew that car makers across the world were cutting production levels to cope with the huge stock of cars they had. But figures just released show how dramatic the fall-off in car production has been.

Overall UK Car production for the whole of 2008 was down by a relatively modest 5.7%, which actually reflects how strong production was in the early part of the year. But the big shock is the December production figures. The overall decline was 47.5%, with a massive 61.6% reduction in cars built for the home market.

We seemed to write constantly about production cutbacks and closures in December, so the fact that production was down year on year is no big surprise. And to be fair, production will start to pick up once stocks of cars start to drop. But the cost of these reductions is colossal, with almost 50,000 fewer cars built in December 2008 than in December 2007.

And the rot hasn’t stopped yet. Factories all over the UK are either closed or on short time. Let’s hope (against hope, probably) that the government can start to instil a bit of consumer confidence with its latest banking initiatives. But don’t hold your breath.

By Cars UK