The number of cars made in the UK during March fell by 13.3% from a year earlier as both domestic and overseas demand for vehicles declined. The Society of Motor Manufacturing and Traders (SMMT) said poor weather had affected production. It said car sales to the UK had dropped for an eighth month and double-digit falls in the home market and exports were a “considerable concern”.   The SMMT said that cars made for the UK fell by 17.7%, while exports dropped by ... Read more

Jaguar Land Rover saw its sales slip last month, dragged down by falls in the UK and Europe. It was still the West Midlands-based luxury carmaker’s second best February in its history, as the new Range Rover Velar and Land Rover Discovery helped boost sales.  But solid demand in China – up 3.3% – and in markets such as the Middle East and Russia failed to generate enough growth to counter the falls elsewhere. Overall sales for Jaguar Land Rover were ... Read more

UK car manufacturing output held steady in January 2018, with just 72 fewer vehicles produced than in the same month last year. Export drove overall volumes, whereas the domestic demand declined, study has revealed.  According to a new SMMT report UK car industry output in the month fell by a negligible -0.05% year on year, as 147,481 cars rolled off production lines – effectively maintaining the nine-year high set in January 2017.   Exports drove overall volumes, with output for overseas customers rising ... Read more

The union Unite has called on the owner of the Vauxhall car company to invest in new models after workers at its Ellesmere Port plant in Cheshire learned the carmaker was seeking 250 additional redundancies on top of the 400 announced last October.   The manufacturer, now owned by French company PSA, said the move was prompted by the need to “accelerate the recovery of plant productivity”. Vauxhall said it intends to move staff from two production shifts to one. The company told ... Read more

Midlands sports car manufacturer Morgan Motor Company has revealed details of its most extreme road going model to date.  The race-inspired Aero GT is based upon the lightweight aluminium Aero 8 but with an all-new hand-worked, aerodynamically honed body which reduces drag but significantly increases downforce. The Malvern-based company said it aimed to utilise the knowledge it had learned from Morgan’s GTS race victories. The car was conceived initially during the development of the 2015 Aero 8 but never saw the light ... Read more

The University of Derby has awarded a Leicestershire business £97,650 to expand overseas.   Vitesse Global provides specialist engine, gearbox and ancillary components to a niche market in the automotive sector. The business, based in Hinckley, says it noticed there was a gap in the market as British sports car manufacturers don’t offer automatic gear boxes to buyers, which limits sales as they are highly popular in some countries.   Morgan Motor Company was keen to work with Vitesse Global to produce an automatic gearbox, ... Read more

UK car production fell during September as confidence was hit by Brexit uncertainty, according to a major car industry body. Plans to improve air quality also added to the decline in car output, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said. A 14% fall in demand in the UK market drove the overall drop, it said. Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said: “With UK car manufacturing falling for a fifth month this year, it’s clear that declining consumer and business confidence is ... Read more

Jaguar Land Rover has been revealed as the new name behind plans for a $40m development in Staffordshire.  JLR is investing in a new 52-acre site storage facility at Stone Business Park.   The massive new development will provide secure storage facilities for 6,500 vehicles and is expected to create around 75 permanent jobs.   Birmingham-based Stoford Developments will be delivering the new facility.  Director Tony Nash said “This development will bring significant inward investment into the county and represents a major commitment to the ... Read more

Germany’s transport minister has announced a recall of 22,000 Porsche cars to remove what he says is illegal emissions-controlling software.  He said that luxury marque Porsche would bear the cost of the recalls of the affected 3-litre Cayenne models.   It comes as Porsche’s sister firm Volkswagen says it will refit almost a million more diesel cars in Germany.  Allegations about Porsche first emerged in German in magazine Der Spiegel last month.   It said it was told by a source that the Porsche Cayenne ... Read more