Nissan loses place as UK's largest car manufacturer

Jan 24, 2016

Nissan has lost its place as the UK’s top car manufacturer - though it remains the country’s single most productive plant.

Figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders showed that Jaguar Land Rover produced 489,000 vehicles in 2015, while Nissan’s figures fell slightly to 476,000.

Nissan’s Sunderland plant remains the single most productive factory in the country, however, as Jaguar Land Rover’s numbers came across its three sites in the Midlands and Merseyside.

Car manufacturing across the UK reached a 10-year high in 2015, the new figures showed, with more vehicles exported than ever before.

Almost 1.6m cars were built in the UK in 2015, an increase of 3.9% over the previous year, and nearly four out of five cars were exported, despite a huge fall in sales to China and Russia.

Exports to Russia slumped by 69% and by 37% to China, where the economy has been slowing.

But this was offset by economic recovery in Europe, where demand for UK-built cars increased by 11% in 2015.

Production at Nissan fell by 4.7% last year as the company changed one of its production lines to gear up manufacturing of the luxury Infiniti vehicle.

Colin Lawther, Nissan’s senior vice president for manufacturing, purchasing and supply chain management in Europe, said: “While no other plant in the history of the UK car industry has ever built more than 400,000 cars annually, Nissan Sunderland Plant has now done so for six consecutive years, three of which have seen production rise over 500,000 cars.

“Last year the company’s flagship plant in Sunderland entered the premium market for the first time with December’s launch of the Infiniti Q30 – the first new car brand to be built in the UK on such a scale in 23 years. This complex project was the reason behind a reduced output on the plant’s Line 2.

“In September last year the second-generation Nissan Qashqai entered the history books after 500,000 were built in 21 months – another UK industry record.

“Today’s figures announced by the SMMT show continued growth for the UK car industry and that is great news for British jobs and exports and for our UK supply chain.”

Production of the Mini increased by 12.4% last year to 201,000, Toyota by 10.4% (190,000), Vauxhall by 9.5% 85,000) and Jaguar Land Rover by 9% (489,000), while Nissan recorded a 4.7% reduction (476,000) and Honda was down by 2% (119,000), said the SMMT.

The United States overtook China as the biggest export destination, with demand up by a quarter last year, while healthy growth was also reported in Australia (53%), South Korea (55%), Turkey (41%) and Japan (35%).

Mr Hawes said: “Despite export challenges in some key markets such as Russia and China, foreign demand for British-built cars has been strong, reaching record export levels in the past year.

“Achieving these hard fought for results is down to vital investment in the sector, world class engineering and a committed and skilled UK workforce - one of the most productive in the world.

“Continued growth in an intensely competitive global marketplace is far from guaranteed, however, and depends heavily on global economic conditions and political stability.

“Europe is our biggest trading partner and the UK’s membership of the European Union is vital for the automotive sector in order to secure future growth and jobs.”

Chancellor George Osborne said: “I am hugely encouraged that manufacturing is at a 10-year high and exports are at a record level. All this means jobs and the security of a pay packet for workers and their families.

“Our plans to rebalance the economy mean we have to continue to build on our great manufacturing strengths in the Midlands and the North of England, and work together to ensure that Britain continues to prosper as a global leader in car production."

 

Source:  ChronicleLive