The British Car Industry: Where is it at?
A constant hot topic for politicians, the year-on-year fall in manufacturing in the UK has been widely acknowledged as an issue since the 1960s. With cheap labour and materials sourced elsewhere, and import costs proving less costly than internal production, many sectors, from heavy machinery to precision technology, are made on the other side of the world.
Brief history of the British Car Industry
The car industry has not been exempt from this, despite Britain being one of the world’s leading lights in this sector in the early days of the automotive industry, producing vehicles since tail end of the 19th century. Peaking in the 1970s, with companies such as Chrysler, Ford, Vauxhall and BLMC among the market leaders, a gradual decrease in sales figures lead to many production plants closing, particularly through the 2000s. Not only did this raise the spectre of a rapid escalation of unemployment, but also served as the go-to example of an overall decrease in domestic production in the country.
However, recent statistics have given cause for optimism. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) recently proclaimed that this October saw a 17% rise in the number of cars built on UK shores from the same month last year, and that British industrial output was at its highest rate since the mid-1990s.
The record 1,286,287 vehicles produced up to this point in 2013, up 5.4% than last year during the same timeframe, are as a result of consumer confidence starting to grow after years of recession, as well as the range of payment plans available to car buyers at this time. The gap between the UK and Germany, Europe’s biggest car buying nation, has also shrunk by 6% from this period.
According to the Confederation of British Industry, the trend reflects that of British industry as a whole, which is showing general improvement in certain sectors.
The September/October period is typically a popular one for car sales, with new registration plates issued attracting buyers in the same way that they do in March.
However, this year saw the March plates bearing the number 13, with some experts convinced that superstition played a part in capping sales at this time, and the new 63 plates introduced in September seeing a boom. Many will hold out until these two points of the year before buying a car to maximise resale potential, and this could be part of the explanation for the increase in sales being reported by the SMMT.
Among the manufacturers enjoying this current resurgence in car sales are British powerhouse Vauxhall, whose flagship model, the Corsa, was the second highest selling vehicle this year behind another resurgent make: the Ford Fiesta. In fact, cars made in this country now account for 1/7th of all car sales, making many experts optimistic about the future of the British automotive industry.