UK auto production for May slumps to lowest level since 1949 as Trump tariffs hit hard

U.K. conveyance accumulation fell sharply for a 5th consecutive period successful May, according to caller figures, arsenic headwinds including U.S. President Donald Trump's commercialized argumentation deed the automotive manufacture hard.

Data published Friday by the U.K.'s Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) recovered that the U.K.'s caller car and commercialized conveyance accumulation volumes fell by 32.8% to 49,810 units past month.

It means that, excluding 2020, erstwhile factories were shuttered during Covid-19 lockdowns, U.K. conveyance output deed its lowest level since 1949 successful May.

Shipments to the European Union and the U.S. — the U.K.'s 2 largest markets — fell by 22.5% and 55.4%, respectively, past month.

The melodramatic slowdown successful car accumulation is owed successful ample portion to ongoing exemplary changeovers, restructuring and the interaction of tariffs, SMMT said.

In aboriginal April, Trump implemented a 25% tariff connected each cars and car parts imported into the U.S. — a determination that prompted British luxury brands specified arsenic Aston Martin and Jaguar Land Rover to temporarily intermission shipments to the U.S.

In aboriginal May, however, Trump signed an enforcement bid to trim the levy paid by U.S.-based firms connected British cars to 10% for the archetypal 100,000 cars imported each year.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said astatine the clip that the simplification successful car tariffs would prevention hundreds of millions of pounds a twelvemonth for Jaguar Land Rover alone.

"While 2025 has proved to beryllium an incredibly challenging twelvemonth for UK automotive production, determination is the beginnings of immoderate optimism for the future," Mike Hawes, main enforcement of SMMT, said successful a statement.

"Confirmed commercialized deals with important markets, particularly the U.S. and a much affirmative narration with the EU, arsenic good arsenic authorities strategies connected manufacture and commercialized that recognise the captious relation the assemblage plays successful driving economical growth, should assistance recovery," Hawes said.

The automotive assemblage is recognized arsenic the motor country of Britain's planetary trade. Last year, for example, the U.K. exported £9 cardinal ($12.36 billion) worthy of cars into the U.S., accounting for much than 27% of full U.K. exports.

So acold this year, full U.K. conveyance accumulation is down 12.9% from 2024 to 348,226 units, SMMT said. It means full conveyance accumulation has fallen to its lowest level since 1953.