Britain’s car industry suffered its worst April in over 70 years, with new figures revealing a sharp fall in vehicle production that underscores deepening challenges facing the sector.
Data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) showed that UK car output fell by 8.9 per cent last month, with only 56,500 vehicles rolling off production lines — the worst April since 1952, excluding the shutdowns during the Covid pandemic. Meanwhile, commercial vehicle output collapsed by a staggering 68 per cent year-on-year, down from 8,500 to just 2,600 vans.
The figures cap off the worst start to the year for the British automotive sector since the global financial crisis of 2009. In the first four months of 2025, UK car production has dropped more than 4 per cent to 284,000 units, while commercial vehicle output is down 35 per cent, with van exports plummeting 75 per cent.
The SMMT attributed the slump to a combination of factors, including the late Easter holidays disrupting supply chains, the closure of Stellantis’s Luton plant — which previously built Vauxhall vans — and wider uncertainty linked to President Trump’s escalating trade war with China and the European Union.
With UK factories currently producing vehicles at an annualised rate of just 767,000 — fewer than at points during the pandemic — the sector is now operating at barely half of its pre-Covid levels. That includes major plants building brands such as Nissan, Mini, Toyota, Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Range Rover, all of which reported lower output in April.
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