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 car final month, after the cyber-attack compelled the automotive maker to close down its IT methods and halt its world manufacturing operations, together with at its three UK vegetation.
Total UK automotive manufacturing fell by 27% with simply over 51,000 made final month, knowledge 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 mentioned.
The JLR cyber-attack was largely accountable for the droop in UK automotive manufacturing, the SMMT mentioned, 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, based on analysis printed 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 mentioned 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.
Total, whole car manufacturing slumped by 35.9% in September in comparison with a 12 months in the past to about 54,300 automobiles.
The SMMT chief govt Mike Hawes mentioned: “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 state of affairs has improved, the sector stays underneath immense stress,” he added.
The vast majority of automobiles 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 12 months thus far UK automotive and van factories have made 582,250 automobiles, which is 15.2% decrease than on the identical level in 2024.
The five-week JLR shutdown was a “extreme, however short-term challenge” for the general trade, Autotrader’s chief industrial officer Ian Plummer mentioned.
“It will be a bit like Covid, the place after the shutdown and delays finish, there is a surge in demand and gross sales,” he mentioned.
Mr Plummer mentioned JLR manufacturers had risen to have the very 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 mentioned a current ambition from the UK authorities to assist foster a resurgence in home automotive manufacturing to 1.3m automobiles a 12 months is unsure if the chancellor Rachel Reeves ends tax breaks provided to Worker Automobile Possession Schemes (ECOS).
“The trade is asking for fast interventions to shore up its competitiveness,” he mentioned.
Retaining producers’ ECOS schemes could be “a right away aid”, he mentioned, and bringing ahead different interventions together with programmes to bolster provide chain resilience “would additional increase the sector”.
