The five-week shutdown of Jaguar Land Rover’s (JLR) factories following a cyber-attack drove automobile 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 automobile maker to close down its IT methods and halt its international manufacturing operations, together with at its three UK crops.
General UK automobile 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 vehicles made in any September within the UK since 1952, together with the pandemic, the SMMT stated.
The JLR cyber-attack was largely chargeable for the stoop in UK automobile manufacturing, the SMMT stated, as a result of different producers reported steady figures for the month.
The assault can also be estimated to price £1.9bn and be the most economically damaging cyber event in UK history, in accordance with 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 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 automobile producer by quantity within the UK after Nissan.
General, whole automobile manufacturing slumped by 35.9% in September in comparison with a 12 months in the past to about 54,300 automobiles.
The SMMT chief government Mike Hawes stated: “September’s efficiency comes as no shock given the full 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.
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 automobile 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 problem” 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 may be demand on the market, even because the pipeline is at present caught”.
The SMMT’s Mr Hawes additionally stated a current ambition from the UK authorities to assist foster a resurgence in home automobile 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 business is asking for fast interventions to shore up its competitiveness,” he stated.
Conserving 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”.
