UK car industry

UK car industry

How it all began! The UK automotive industry traces back to the end of the 19th century. It was Gottlieb Daimler that patented a design for the new petrol based engine in 1885. He befriended Fredrick Simms who was an engineer and together they formed Daimler Motor Syndicate Limited.

British vehicles were initially designed in France and Germany. It was only in 1900 that the all- British four-wheel car was designed and manufactured by – Herbert Austin. Austin opened the UK’s largest manufacturing plant in 1900 until Henry Ford founded a new plant thirteen years later in Manchester. By 1922, there were more than 150 automotive companies operating in the UK. Several years later the Great Depression took an overrun on the industry cutting back on the number of manufacturers to nearly 50.

In 1932, UK managed to emerge as the biggest car producing country in Europe. During the WWII companies such as Austin, Ford, Morris, Rootes, Standard and Vauxhall were the forerunners of the industry. However their focus shifted to military vehicles and aircraft parts during this time.

Development and decline
In the 1950’s UK became the second biggest car manufacturer and the biggest car exporter in the world. However, post WWII when other economies started recovering the Japanese, German and American automotive companies started to overpower. One of the major drawbacks that UK faced was the high cost of production in comparison to other countries. By the 1960’s the UK car market faced a steady decline while other parts of Europe became involved in the industry.

By the mid eighties Japanese automakers such as Nissan and Toyota had built their first European production plants in the UK. By this time the Japanese automakers were moving ahead of the game and the JDM was thriving while the UK market was facing decline. Over the years major UK car brands have been acquired by international automakers. Rolls Royce and Mini was acquired by BMW – Germany, while Bentley was taken over by Volkswagen and Ford acquired Aston Martin and Jaguar. Today more than 70% of the vehicles produced in the UK are exported to countries around the world.

The world car industry is evolving at a frightfully exhilarating pace. The advancement in technology and strategy is compelling the UK market to adapt to new systems and processes. With the on going COVID 19 pandemic situation, UK similar to other car markets has been affected directly. While UK managed the pandemic quite well, the same cannot be said about their car industry. This is one reason the Japanese auto auction system is becoming such a hit among consumers. From these online auctions you get to buy the latest used cars at very reasonable rates.

While things are expected to pick up in the UK car industry, it may never go back to its former glory of being the number one.

In auto auction Japan you can find some UK cars like Bently. Our German, Poland, Finland and Taiwan clients love to purchase such beauty from Japanese auto auctions.