A five-week shutdown of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) factories following a cyber attack caused vehicle production to fall by more than a quarter in September.
JLR factories produced no cars last month after a cyber attack forced the carmaker to shut down its IT systems and halt global production operations, including at three factories in the UK.
Overall UK car production fell 27%, with just over 51,000 vehicles produced last month, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
This is the lowest number of cars produced in September in the UK since 1952, including the pandemic, according to SMMT.
The JLR cyber attack was largely responsible for the decline in UK car production as other manufacturers reported flat figures for the month, according to SMMT.
The cost of the attack is also estimated at £1.9 billion. the most economically destructive cyber event in UK historyaccording to a study published Tuesday.
The Cyber Monitoring Center (CMC) found that 5,000 businesses were affected by this event and full recovery will not occur until January 2026.
JLR said production at its Solihull, Wolverhampton and Halewood sites was recovering. step by step.
The maker of the Jaguar I-Pace and Range Rover Sport is the UK's second largest car manufacturer after Nissan.
Overall, total vehicle production fell 35.9% in September from a year earlier to about 54,300 vehicles.
SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes said: “September’s figures are not a surprise given the complete loss of production at the UK’s largest automotive employer following the cyber incident.
“Although the situation has improved, the sector remains under enormous pressure,” he added.
The majority of cars produced in the UK are sent overseas, and exports also fell in September – down 24.5% – with the top five destinations being the EU, US, Turkey, Japan and South Korea.
UK car and van factories produced 582,250 vehicles this year, down 15.2% on the same period in 2024.
JLR's five-week closure was a “significant but short-term challenge” for the entire industry, Autotrader chief executive Ian Plummer said.
“It will be a bit like Covid, where there is a surge in demand and sales after closures and postponements,” he said.
Mr Plummer, who runs the UK's largest car selling platform, said JLR brands had grown to have the highest number of monthly leads on Autotrader, “so the demand is there even though the pipeline is currently stuck”.
SMMT's Mr Hawes also said the UK Government's recent ambitions to help restart domestic car production to 1.3 million vehicles a year are in doubt if Chancellor Rachel Reeves scraps tax breaks offered to employee car ownership schemes (ECOS).
“Industry requires rapid action to improve its competitiveness,” he said.
He said maintaining manufacturers' ECOS schemes would be an “immediate relief” and the introduction of other measures, including supply chain resilience programmes, would “further boost the sector”.
