In October, the UK produced 110,179 units of cars, down 18.2pc from the previous year on the back of critical Brexit deal, according to Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders production (SMMT) data.
Car export declined by 19.1pc on muted demand from US and EU markets from the year prior, as production for UK buyers also fell in October. Car production for UK buyers was down 13.6pc to 18,692 units and for exports, 91,550 units were produced. Almost 83.1pc of total production consists of export-oriented cars.
Production fell largely due to the falling exports, though demand from Asian markets was better with exports rising to Japan and China by 57pc and 9.7pc, respectively, from a year ago — not enough to offset the low demand from US and EU.
In a 10-month period until October, production was down 33.8pc to 743,003 units from the year ago period.
UK is transitioning completely to electric vehicles within a decade while the sector is challenged by both COVID-19 and the consequences of Brexit. UK’s auto sector also awaits the agreement of a UK-EU trade deal, however, in the event of ‘no-deal’, production losses would weigh down on the sector for the next five years, SMMT stated.