UK car production falls 11% in September as plants pause for electric retooling

British car factories built 69,400 vehicles in September, 11% fewer than a year earlier and the lowest September total since the financial crisis, as the industry’s shift to electric production left plants idle for weeks at a time.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said on Thursday that two large plants, one in the north-west and one in the Midlands, had been closed for most of the month while new battery assembly lines were installed, and that a third, in the north-east, had moved to a four-day week because of weak European demand for its petrol models. Output for the year to date is down 6.8% at 578,000 vehicles.

The trade body said the decline was “transitional” but warned that the industry was now paying the price for the slow arrival of a British battery supply chain. Only one large battery plant is operating in the country, and most of the cells fitted to UK-built electric cars are still imported from Poland, Hungary and South Korea.

Electric and hybrid vehicles accounted for 47% of September production, a record, and exports of electric models to the EU rose 14%. But the SMMT said tariffs threatened by Washington on European-built cars had led several manufacturers to pause investment decisions, and that the zero-emission vehicle mandate, which requires 33% of each carmaker’s UK sales to be electric this year, was being met partly through discounting that “no manufacturer can sustain”.

Suppliers are feeling the squeeze first. Tamworth Pressings, which makes body panels for three carmakers, said it had put 90 of its 420 staff on short-time working in September. “When the line stops at the big plant, our line stops the next morning,” said its managing director, Carol Stennett. “We are told the new lines will run faster when they are in. We have to survive the gap.”

Union convenors at the affected plants said the retooling shutdowns had been agreed and that staff had been kept on full pay, but that the four-day week in the north-east was “a different animal”. Dave Routledge, a Unite convenor, said: “That is not a transition, that is demand falling off a cliff in Germany and France. Our members want to know what the plan is if it does not come back.”

Dr Kemi Olawale, an automotive economist at the University of Warwick, said the September figures were “an inflection point rather than a collapse”. She said: “Two plants will come back producing electric vehicles at scale in November. The bigger question is the north-east. If European demand for combustion models does not recover, that plant has a problem the government cannot fix with a grant.”

The Department for Business and Trade said it was “working closely” with manufacturers and that the £2bn automotive transformation fund had so far committed £1.3bn to UK battery and electric drivetrain projects.