Concerns over Brexit and uncertainty surrounding the most recent election were among the key factors impacting the decline in car manufacturing in the UK compared to the previous year. In November, car manufacturing in the country declined by 16.05pc to 107,753 cars from the same month in 2018.
Production for the domestic market also fell 26.6pc to 17,468 units from 23,801 in November 2018, while cars manufactured for exports decreased 14.2pc to 90,285 cars from 105,229 in November 2018.
Production for the domestic market declined by 11.19pc through the first 11 months of 2019 to 236,500 cars compared with the same period a year ago. Production for exports also declined during this period by 15.2pc to 995,179 cars from around 1.17mn cars in 2018. Year-to-date car production in the UK has declined in 17 of the past 18 months.
However, commercial vehicle (CV) production for both domestic and export markets increased 9.8pc, with 8,798 CVs produced in November 2019 compared to 7,983 during the same month in 2018. A surge in production of CVs for the export markets by 43.5pc to 5,539 units in November 2019 compared to 3,861 a year earlier was a key factor in the overall uptick in this segment. Domestic CV production declined 21.7pc to 3,229 units in November 2019 from 4,122 during the same month in 2018.
The production of CVs declined 9.3pc through the first 11 months of 2019 to 70,918 CVs from 78,163 between January and November 2018. The country produced 29,708 CVs for the domestic market during this period, down 5.9pc from the 31,583 units in 2018.The UK produced 41,210 CVs for exports between January and November 2019, down 11.5pc from 46,580 CVs produced during the first 11 months of 2018.