Stay informed with free updates
Simply sign up on Cars MyFT Digest – delivered directly to your inbox.
Vehicle production in the UK collapsed in May at its lowest level since 1949, after US President Donald Trump’s tariff war forced Aston Martin and other British carmakers to stop their shipments in the United States.
The production of cars and a van in British plants fell 33 % in May from a year earlier to 49,810 units, the figures from the Association of Motor and Traders published on Friday.
The output declined for the fifth consecutive month, marking the worst monthly performance in 76 years, with the exception when vehicle factories were closed during the 2020 Covid-19 lock.
British luxury brands, including Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin, Suspended vehicle shipments In the United States since April, after the Trump administration hit higher tariffs for foreign vehicles imported to the United States.
Car shipments to Us It dropped by 55 % year by year in May, reducing US export share from 18 % to 11 %. EU exports also fell 22.5 percent.
Those shipments in the US are expected to continue with scheduled Applying From the US Trade Agreement on Monday, according to which Trump agreed to reduce 27.5 % US car tariff to 10 % for the first 100,000 vehicles shipped from the UK each year.
“While 2025 proved to be an incredibly challenging year for automotive production in the UK, there is a beginning of a certain optimism for the future,” SMMT chief executive Mike House said, citing the trade agreement and recent discovery of the UK industrial strategy, promising to reduce energy costs by 25 %.
The deal with the United States was announced by Trump on May 8, but car executives expressed frustration from the speed of its implementation. Only a few days before a contract is obtained, companies have yet to be informed of the specific distribution of the quota system.
“It comes live on June 30th. So we plan to invoice a three-month sale in 24 hours,” said Adrian Halmark, chief executive of Aston Martin, at the SMMT event on Tuesday. “It’s complexity and dynamics.”
Halmark, however, welcomed the deal, saying British carmakers are now “less worse than some of our European and non -European competitors”.
Even before the US trade war erupted, Production of vehicles in the UK It was shrinking as the industry struggled to meet the difficult goals of selling electric vehicles in the country.
Stellantis said last year that the costs of respecting the “Zero Escape Vehicle Vehicle” of the government are partly behind its decision to close its Luton Van factory and to consolidate its operations in the UK at its Elsmer port factory in Cheshir.
Ford also blamed the mandate for reducing 800 roles in the UK last year in wider European restructuring.
Source link
