Exports continued to drive British passenger car manufacturing in March, as demand rose 10.6% in the month, according to figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), monitored by Kallanish. This represents the best performance since the year 2000, the society says.

170,691 cars were built in the UK in March, up 7.3%, with overseas buyers ordering more than 76% of output.

Overseas demand also helped push overall production to a 17-year high in the first quarter, to 471,695 units, an increase of 7.6%. This helped offset a decline at home, with demand down -4.3% in the quarter.

UK passenger car production March 2017 (units)
  Mar 2016 Mar 2017 % change Y-t-d 2016 Y-t-d 2017 % change
Total 159,074 170,691   7.3% 438,390 471,695  7.6
Home    40,742   39,853  -2.2% 108,737 104,025 -4.3
Export 118,332 130838 10.6% 329,653 367,670 11.5
% export 74.4% 76.7%   75.2% 77.9%  

Source: SMMT

UK commercial vehicle (CV) production meanwhile fell back -4.3% in March to 8,041 units. Exports rose for seventh consecutive month however, with vehicles shipped overseas up 7.8% to 4,855 units.

The Q1 performance was stable, SMMT says, down marginally by -0.7% as export demand grew 21.2% to account for two thirds of production volumes.

UK commercial vehicle (CV) production March 2017 (units)
  Mar 2016 Mar 2017 % change Y-t-d 2016 Y-t-d 2017 % change
Total 8,398 8,041   -4.3% 23,639 23,483   -0.7%
Home 3,868 3,156 -18.4% 11,189   8,391 -25.0%
Export 4,530 4,885    7.8% 12,450 15,092  21.2%
% export 53.9% 60.8%   52.7% 64.3%  

Source: SMMT