Six Year High In Car Production Reflects Strong UK Export, Says KPMG

John Leech, KPMG’s UK Head of Automotive, commented on the SMMT figures published today highlighting best year-to-date performance since 2008, producing 1,132,017 units – up 0.6 per cent. He said:

“The growth in new car production of 0.6 per cent for the first 9 months of the year was a strong performance in light of the continued underperformance of the European car market and in part reflects that half of cars exported by the UK are to countries outside the EU. No other EU country exports such a high proportion of its cars outside of the EU. In the last two months, manufacturers have extended shutdowns for retooling and refurbishment which has also allowed some rebalancing of vehicle stocks which should help their profitability in the coming months. We expect that UK vehicle production will grow more strongly in the coming months and years, growing by 20 per cent to 2 million vehicles in 2017.”