Turning UK auto investment into concrete reality
As automotive manufacturers across the UK set about retooling their factories to build a new generation of electrified models, it’s encouraging to see the tough job of turning last year’s massive investment announcements into reality is underway.
With some production paused during this transformative period, a decline in output was inevitable compared with the improved performance of car and commercial vehicle plants in 2023. The latest independent industry outlook expects light vehicle volumes to remain below last year’s levels for the next 12 to 18 months, but growth will return to just over 1.1 million units in 2028 when more than half of all British-built cars and vans are likely to be zero emission.
Delivering a new, comprehensive industrial strategy can ensure national growth continues into the next decade with automotive at its heart. SMMT analysis published last month suggests Britain can produce more than nine million zero emission light vehicles by 2035, some 600,000 more than anticipated under current outlooks, but only with the right economic and trading conditions. Automotive is export-led so signing more free – and fair – trade agreements will be a cornerstone of our sector’s job and wealth creation, growth which the UK economy craves.
Industrial competitiveness is the starting point and we welcome the new government’s commitments to gigafactories; to greener, more affordable energy; a faster planning system; and skills reform – all of which, as we set out in Vision 2035: Ready to Grow, will confirm our country’s credentials as a world-leading advanced manufacturing location.
Equally important is vibrant domestic consumption given manufacturers seek to base themselves near key markets. A faster transition to zero emission mobility, therefore, is essential but requires supportive measures for all vehicle segments and for the consumers that drive them.
The UK automotive industry already has one of the world’s most diverse manufacturing footprints, supporting hundreds of thousands of high value jobs across the UK, and delivering billions to the economy every year. We’re in a good position and, with the right enablers including those set out in Labour’s Automotive Sector Plan, we can become even stronger.
