Mature Market Vehicle Production : UK

Some great cars from Austin back in the 1960's

The UK car manufacturing industry has had had its ups and downs and ups. In the 1950's it emerged as a successful industry, went into decline in the 1970s', had a brief gain from the late 1980's, slipped a little and making a small comeback at this point. Below is what I mean.

	Year	Vehicle	Car	CV	% CV
	1950	784,000	523,000	261,000	33.3%
	1955	1,237,000	898,000	339,000	27.4%
	1960	1,811,000	1,353,000	458,000	25.3%
	1965	2,177,000	1,722,000	455,000	20.9%
	1970	2,098,000	1,641,000	457,000	21.8%
	1975	1,648,000	1,267,000	381,000	23.1%
	1980	1,313,000	924,000	389,000	29.6%
	1985	1,314,000	1,048,000	266,000	20.2%
	1990	1,566,000	1,296,000	270,000	17.2%
	1995	1,765,000	1,532,000	233,000	13.2%
	2000	1,814,000	1,642,000	172,000	9.5%
	2005	1,803,000	1,596,000	207,000	11.5%
	2010	1,390,000	1,271,000	119,000	8.6%
	2014	1,599,000	1,528,000	71,000	4.4%

Looking at some peaks and troughs for the period from 1950-2014:

Car Production: High 1972 1,921,000 / Low 1952 448,000.

Commercial High: 1969 466,000 / Low 2014 71,000

Total Production High: 1964 2,332,000 / Low 1952 699,000.

Car production: It passed 1 million in 1958 but has never reached 2 million. It dropped under the million mark from 1980 to 1984 (except 1983) and has been over the million since 1985 (except 2009). Over that last few decades whenever revival seemed imminent, a car maker went. Reaching the record figure seems unlikely although growth is going well for now. 

Commercial Vehicle production: This is one area that the UK was powerful in but now scarcely registers. Many van and truck brands have gone, and with the recent departure of the Ford Transit all seemed lost. For now Vauxhall, DAF and Land Rover are the three volume CV manufacturers with the LR Defender to go this year. Bus production is going well but is relatively limited in numbers. 

Total production: 1 million was passed in 1954, 2 million in 1963 to 1973 (except 1967). Since then always under the 2 figure. With such poor CV volume, 2 million will not happen again.

Summary: The fact is as a country with higher costs than many other nations, attracting new car makers is virtually impossible now. Infiniti is just starting production as a new marque to the UK but the numbers will be modest and it is part of the Nissan operation in Sunderland. As long as all present car makers remain, then UK car production will be stable. The glory days are over but it is so much better than it could have been.

Austin picture source: Classic Car Catalogue.