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Car production in the UK in September 2025 fell by 27.1%, mainly due to total production stoppage at JLR after a cyber attack. UK car production is still a long way off pre-Covid levels, but there were signs that it was recovering with actual growth in numbers in June and July, although it went into reverse again in August with a drop of 10.2% and, if you add in CV production to the equation, total vehicle production was the lowest level since 1956.
When we reported August’s figures, we did comment that if August was bad, then September would be even worse, as JLR produced nothing all month after a cyber attack. And so it is, with UK car production in September down by 27.1% with just 51,090 cars rolling off production lines. Add in a drop of 77.9% in CV production, and the total drop was 35.9%. AS we’ve come to expect, as car makers endeavour to avoid fines for pure ICE cars, production of electrified cars – that’s BEV, PHEV and HEV – grew by 24.5% to garner 47.8% of production, with the majority of cars, 76%, heading for export, with the top five export markets EU, US, Turkey, Japan and South Korea.
To add to the misery, the SMMT is warning that Government plans to scrap the Employee Car Ownership Schemes (ECOS) scheme, which allows car makers’ employees to access the cars they make affordably, could result in as many as 80,000 fewer new cars being sold per annum with a loss of £1 billion in revenue and £500k loss to the government in lost VAT and VED. Which is all the industry needs.
Mike Hawes, SMMT CEO, said:
September’s performance comes as no surprise given the total loss of production at Britain’s biggest automotive employer following a cyber incident. While the situation has improved, the sector remains under immense pressure. The Industrial Strategy, launched by the Prime Minister, Business Secretary and Chancellor only in June, sought to align government policies towards growth and restore UK vehicle output to 1.3 million units per annum. The move to scrap ECOS immediately puts that ambition in doubt and must be reversed given the damage it will inflict on the sector and exchequer revenues.