The U.K.’s auto sector is reeling from its worst month for production since 1952—when the Morris Minor ruled the country’s roads and Queen Elizabeth ascended to the throne—as Trump’s tariff war added to a bearish environment for the country’s biggest carmakers.
U.K. plants producing cars like Range Rovers, Bentleys, and Toyotas pumped out 59,200 models in April, marking the lowest monthly output figure in more than 70 years, according to data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). Carmakers are set for their worst start to the year in production terms since 2009 and the depths of the Great Recession.
Commercial vehicle exports fell by more than 75% in April as automakers digested the fallout of Donald Trump’s tariffs on the car industry and his more sweeping plans announced on “Liberation Day.” Cars bound for the U.S., which represented about a sixth of the U.K.’s car exports, experienced a slight decline in April, with EU exports fueling the biggest drop.
U.K. luxury carmakers, including Rolls-Royce and Aston Martin, were regarded as being particularly vulnerable to a trade war because much of their appeal comes from keeping most production at their historic local plants.
Jaguar Land Rover said in early April that it would be pausing U.S. shipments while it assessed the fallout from Trump’s tariff announcements. The carmaker sold more than 128,000 cars to the States, its biggest market, in 2024.
The end of March also marked the closure of the Stellantis-owned Vauxhall factory in Luton, where the carmaker employed more than 1,000 workers. Employees at the 120-year-old factory faced a stark ultimatum: a 140-mile relocation north or accepting a redundancy package.
A calendar quirk of the Easter break falling later in 2025, which accordingly shuttered production for an extra two days over the bank holiday, also contributed to depressed production figures, the SMMT said. Indeed, March production figures showed nearly 80,000 vehicles being produced in the U.K. that month.
April’s awful production figures are likely to be an anomaly, and not just owing to the quirk of the calendar. Earlier in May, the U.K. and U.S. hammered out a landmark trade deal that would see import tariffs on cars to the States reduced from 25% to 10% for the first 100,000 vehicles.
The development is expected to prevent a lot of pain in the U.K. auto market, and SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes is taking a victory lap after demonstrating the sector’s influence on the U.K.’s international relations.
“Government has recognized automotive manufacturing’s critical role in driving the U.K. economy, having successfully negotiated improved trading conditions for the sector with the U.S., EU, and India in the space of a month,” said Hawes.
“To take advantage of these trading opportunities we must secure additional investment which will depend on the competitiveness and confidence that can be provided by a comprehensive and innovative long-term industrial strategy. Get this right and the jobs, economic growth, and decarbonization will flow across the U.K.”
