Over 130,000 cars were made in the UK last month, a rise of 2.8%, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
Last month’s total took the year-to-date figure to 923,884 – a 3.4% increase on the total for the first seven months of last year.
Mike Hawes, SMMT Chief Executive, said, “July saw the new car market extend its record period of growth to a twenty-ninth month, as consumers took advantage of an array of new products and deals on the latest fuel-efficient new cars.”
“The continued positivity has led to an uplift in the SMMT full year forecast to 2.45 million passenger car registrations, a rise of 8.1%. However, the more moderate growth of the last three months shows that overall demand is beginning to stabilise.”
July also marked five million cars exported from UK since the beginning of 2010 – the best performance of any decade. The average value of each exported car has also more than doubled from £10,200 in 2004 to £20,600 in 2014. The SMMT has forecast that annual production will beat 1972’s record of 1.92 million cars by 2017.
Growth has been better in the higher end market, doing bumper sales. And destinations are changing too: China, which did not even break the top 10 of export markets in 2000, was second in 2010. Britain’s biggest export market for cars is the EU, with China and Russia overtaking the US for second and third spots in international sales.
