UK eyes silver place in European car manufacturing

UK eyes silver place in European car manufacturing

Looking at both manufacturing figures and current market trends, analysts are expecting the UK to out-distance France, currently the second biggest vehicle manufacturer in the EU, in automotive output in "...a few years."

The current top three automobile manufacturers in Europe are Germany, France and the UK, with Germany dominating the marketplace. Last year, their output was 5.5 million vehicles, whereas France and Britain could not even reach half that figure, with France producing 1.9 million vehicles, and the UK snapping at their heels with 1.5 million vehicles produced. Current trends in the automotive marketplace are however showing that the UK has a change to catch up to their neighbours over the channel.

The UK has been seeing big improvement in car sales over 2013, with both April and May showing leaps in sales figures, and the year to date being 10% higher than 2012. In contrast, the rest of Europe experienced it's worst year for car production for 17 years in 2012, with French carmakers Peugeot and Renault both suffering from sales lulls. French automobile production tends to concentrate on the rest of Europe for its sales, producing vehicles for the mass market, which currently is shrinking in the Eurozone. The UK automobile producers conversely target market across the globe with their offerings, with countries like China and other emerging markets proving great targets for their luxury brands such as Rolls-Royce. In fact it is thought that a quarter of all Rolls-Royces are sold in China, with the country being Jaguar Land Rover (JLR)'s biggest buyer.

The Automobile Manufacturer's Association (AMA) are predicting that the UK car manufacturing output will surpass 2 million by the year 2018. These predictions have been backed up by a number of manufacturers in the UK, notably Nissan UK, whose executive VP, Andy Palmer, noted that these figures could easily be reached if production plants in the UK reached their full capacity, which they are almost reaching as of now. The MD of BMW UK, Tim Abbot, also echoed this, and stated that the demand for vehicles made in Britain is ever-growing, whilst the market for French-made cars is levelling-out or shrinking. He cited the performance of Jaguar Land Rover and BMW in foreign markets to back this up. It seems that things are looking up for the UK automotive industry, and we may indeed be reaching that second place sooner than we think.

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