When will the UK car industry catch a break? October 2025 brought another crushing blow as car production tumbled 23.8% to just 59,010 units compared to the same month last year. That’s like losing nearly a quarter of all cars that should have rolled off production lines.
The numbers paint a grim picture across the board. When including commercial vehicles, total production crashed 30.9% to 62,116 units. It’s as if entire factories simply stopped working for days at a time.
The domestic market saw production drop 10.6% to 13,785 units, but exports suffered even worse with a devastating 27.1% decline to 45,225 units.
Much of this chaos stems from a cyberattack that hit Jaguar Land Rover, Britain’s largest automotive employer. The cyber incident forced production to halt completely before companies could begin a careful, phased restart in October.
Think of it like rebooting a massive computer system, except this computer builds cars and employs thousands of workers.
The year-to-date picture looks equally troubling. UK car and van production sits 17% below 2024 levels with 644,366 units produced through October.
The industry has shrunk dramatically from 1.5 million units annually in 2018 to a projected 700,000 units for 2025. That’s more than half the production capacity simply vanishing. For investors watching automotive manufacturing, this decline highlights the importance of instant diversification across industries rather than concentrating holdings in single sectors.
Commercial vehicles face an even bleaker reality with production plummeting 74.9% to just 3,106 units in October.
This marks the seventh straight month of declining volumes, creating what experts call a structural challenge for the entire manufacturing sector.
However, a bright spot emerges from electrified vehicle production, which jumped 10.4% to 27,287 units in October. The government has allocated an additional £1.5 billion to enhance manufacturing competitiveness and support the industry’s recovery efforts.
These battery electric, plug-in hybrid, and hybrid models now represent 46.2% of total car production. Almost half of all cars made in October ran on something other than traditional gasoline engines.
Export markets continue struggling despite the EU, US, Turkey, China, and Japan remaining top destinations.
The UK faces fierce competition from China, which produced 26.1 million units in 2023 compared to Britain’s 905,100 units.
Industry leaders hope new electric models entering production will spark recovery by 2026. The October figures represent the lowest since 1952, highlighting the severity of the current crisis facing British automotive manufacturing.
