British car making hits a ten-year high

Good news! Great Britain made a heck of a lot of cars in 2015.

A 1,587,677 total is up nearly four per cent on 2014’s number, and it’s the highest figure recorded since 2005. Doesn’t it make you feel proud?

A plethora of new models helped yield to the rise: the Bentley Bentayga, McLaren 570S, Jaguar XE and Infiniti Q30 are among a gamut of new cars all contributing to that ten-year high.

And while Nissan’s Sunderland factory (where that Q30 is made) remains the most productive factory, its numbers are actually down a little year-on-year, with a weak Russian market to blame.

That’s allowed Jaguar Land Rover - and its combination of Solihull, Birmingham and Liverpool plants - to sneak ahead, its 489,923 cars around 13,000 more than the number cranked out of the north east. JLR has nearly trebled its production figure over the last five years.

Mini, Toyota and Vauxhall all had a strong year, too, each adding around a tenth to their manufacturing totals of 2014. And Lotus has celebrated success, too, registering 375 cars in 2015. That’s its best figure in five years.

What might surprise you is that only a sliver of that 1.5-odd million total actually stays on our shores. Over 77 per cent of the cars built here last year were exported, helpings cars comprise 11.8 per cent of all UK exports.

Want more numbers? Britain’s automotive industry employs nearly 800,000 people, and yielded a £69.5 billion turnover. If you aren’t humming the national anthem by now, there’s no hope…