{"id":32687,"date":"2025-06-26T23:25:55","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T23:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=32687"},"modified":"2025-06-26T23:25:55","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T23:25:55","slug":"uk-vehicle-production-hits-76-year-low-in-may-as-trump-tariffs-bite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=32687","title":{"rendered":"UK vehicle production hits 76-year low in May as Trump tariffs bite"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Stay informed with free updates<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\"><span>Simply sign up to the <!-- -->Automobiles<!-- --> myFT Digest &#8212; delivered directly to your inbox.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=3a7d052c-d06a-4151-97f5-b2a1aaabb9ef&amp;concept-id=e738ab7b-682e-44a7-b82b-248def23db8d\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>UK vehicle production collapsed in May to the lowest level since 1949 after US President Donald Trump\u2019s tariff war forced Aston Martin and other British carmakers to halt their shipments to the US.<\/p>\n<p>Car and van production at British plants fell 33 per cent in May from a year earlier to 49,810 units, figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders released on Friday showed.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Output declined for the fifth consecutive month, marking the worst monthly performance in 76 years, excluding when vehicle factories were shut down during the Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>British luxury brands, including Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/6c276ad8-bd49-44f0-9e6d-8f5de2c0166d\" data-trackable=\"link\">suspended vehicle shipments<\/a> to the US from April after the Trump administration slapped higher tariffs on foreign-made vehicles imported into the US.<\/p>\n<p>Car shipments to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/us\" data-trackable=\"link\">US<\/a> fell 55 per cent year-on-year in May, reducing the US share of exports from 18 per cent to 11 per cent. Exports to the EU also fell 22.5 per cent.<\/p>\n<p>Those US shipments are expected to resume with the scheduled <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/c298cf46-8489-4867-afc1-973de398ce59\" data-trackable=\"link\">implementation<\/a> of the US-UK trade deal on Monday, under which Trump agreed to cut a 27.5 per cent American tariff on cars to 10 per cent for the first 100,000 vehicles shipped from the UK each year.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile 2025 has proved to be an incredibly challenging year for UK automotive production, there is the beginning of some optimism for the future,\u201d SMMT\u2019s chief executive Mike Hawes said, citing the trade agreement and the recent unveiling of the UK\u2019s industrial strategy, which promises to bring down energy costs by up to 25 per cent.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The agreement with the US was announced by Trump on May 8 but car executives have expressed frustration with the speed of its implementation. Just days ahead of the deal taking effect, companies have yet to be informed of the specific allocation of the quota system.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt comes live on the 30th of June\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009so we\u2019re planing to invoice three months\u2019 worth of sales in a 24-hour period,\u201d Adrian Hallmark, Aston Martin\u2019s chief executive, said at an SMMT event on Tuesday. \u201cThat\u2019s complexity and dynamism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hallmark still welcomed the deal, saying British carmakers were now \u201cless worse off than some of our European and non-European competitors\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Even before the US trade war broke out, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/262056ee-2c44-42c3-890b-c0354149aa8d\" data-trackable=\"link\">UK vehicle production<\/a> had been declining as the industry struggled to meet the country\u2019s tough electric vehicle sales targets.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Stellantis last year said the cost of complying with the government\u2019s \u201czero emission vehicle mandate\u201d was partly behind its decision to close its Luton van factory and consolidate its UK operations at its Ellesmere Port factory in Cheshire. <\/p>\n<p>Ford also blamed the mandate as it cut 800 UK roles last year in a wider European restructuring.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/3a7d052c-d06a-4151-97f5-b2a1aaabb9ef\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Automobiles myFT Digest &#8212; delivered directly to your&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":32688,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}