In 2016, the UK built 1.7 million cars. Last year, we built just 850,575. This slump in production means the UK has spare factory capacity to build another 750,000 cars at least, even despite losing Honda Swindon last year.
The entire automotive industry has had a rough couple of years, as the Covid pandemic was followed by a semiconductor shortage, and car makers will be hoping to put more cars down production lines - if not in 2022 then definitely in 2023.
If that doesn’t happen, though, the costs associated with overcapacity will make manufacturing cars in the UK uncompetitive for those remaining.
