The five-week shutdown of Jaguar Land Rover’s (JLR) factories following a cyber-attack drove automotive manufacturing down by greater than 1 / 4 in September.
JLR amenities didn’t produce a single automobile final month, after the cyber-attack pressured the automotive maker to close down its IT methods and halt its world manufacturing operations, together with at its three UK crops.
General UK automotive manufacturing fell by 27% with simply over 51,000 made final month, information from the Society of Motor Producers and Merchants (SMMT) confirmed.
It’s the lowest variety of automobiles made in any September within the UK since 1952, together with the pandemic, the SMMT stated.
The JLR cyber-attack was largely accountable for the stoop in UK automotive manufacturing, the SMMT stated, as a result of different producers reported secure figures for the month.
The assault can be estimated to price £1.9bn and be the most economically damaging cyber event in UK history, in keeping with analysis revealed on Tuesday.
The Cyber Monitoring Centre (CMC) discovered 5,000 companies have been affected by the occasion and a full restoration won’t happen till January 2026.
JLR stated manufacturing throughout websites in Solihull, Wolverhampton and Halewood was returning in a phased approach.
The maker of the Jaguar I-Tempo and Vary Rover Sport is the second-largest automotive producer by quantity within the UK after Nissan.
General, complete automobile manufacturing slumped by 35.9% in September in comparison with a yr in the past to about 54,300 autos.
The SMMT chief govt Mike Hawes stated: “September’s efficiency comes as no shock given the whole lack of manufacturing at Britain’s largest automotive employer following a cyber incident.
“Whereas the scenario has improved, the sector stays underneath immense stress,” he added.
Nearly all of autos made within the UK are shipped abroad, and exports in September additionally slumped – down 24.5% – with the EU, US, Turkey, Japan and South Korea the highest 5 locations.
This yr up to now UK automotive and van factories have made 582,250 autos, which is 15.2% decrease than on the identical level in 2024.
The five-week JLR shutdown was a “extreme, however short-term concern” for the general business, the boss of Autotrader Ian Plummer stated.
“It’s going to be a bit like Covid, the place after the shutdown and delays finish, there is a surge in demand and gross sales,” he stated.
Mr Plummer, who runs the UK’s largest car-selling platform stated, JLR manufacturers had risen to have the best variety of month-to-month gross sales leads on Autotrader, “so there’s demand on the market, even because the pipeline is at the moment caught”.
The SMMT’s Mr Hawes additionally stated a latest ambition from the UK authorities to assist foster a resurgence in home automotive manufacturing to 1.3m autos a yr is unsure if the chancellor Rachel Reeves ends tax breaks supplied to Worker Automotive Possession Schemes (ECOS).
“The business is looking for speedy interventions to shore up its competitiveness,” he stated.
Protecting producers’ ECOS schemes can be “a right away aid”, he stated, and bringing ahead different interventions together with programmes to bolster provide chain resilience “would additional enhance the sector”.
