11
May 2012
Where are the UK's cars made?
Rumours of the British car industry's death have been greatly exaggerated. For while there are no volume British badges under British ownership the car industry generally finds the UK a good place to do business.
There are currently well over a dozen big car plants in the UK making cars from the lowly Nissan Invitation right up to the McLaren MP4-12C supercar and Rolls-Royce Phantom.
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The UK is home to plenty of cars too. Ellesmere Port is home of the Astra; Sunderland is home of the Qashqai and Swindon is home of the Civic. The Vauxhall and Nissan plants are some of the most highly-regarded in Europe and plants in Britain make in excess of 2.5m cars a year.
We've rounded up Britain's car manufacturing plants to give you an overview of car industry activity in the UK.
Sunderland, Tyne and Wear
Nissan's car manufacturing plant in Sunderland is not only the largest in the UK but also officially the most productive of any plant in Europe.
Around 80 per cent of the cars built at this site are exported to 97 worldwide markets.
At the moment the plant is performing very well and things look set to get better still. In early 2012, Nissan gave the factory £125 million to start building a new hatchback and added 400 new jobs, taking the total staff number above 6,000. A further 1,600 jobs will be added in 2013.
During this year, the Sunderland plant will also begin manufacturing the electric Nissan Leaf to support European markets.
Manufacturer:
Nissan
Cars made:
Juke, Note, Qashqai (replacements for Note and Almera announced as of 2012; Nissan Leaf also announced)
Opened:
1986
Annual capacity:
480,485 cars
Investment:
£125 million (as of April 2012)
Halewood, Liverpool
The Halewood plant was originally opened back in the sixties by Ford to build the Anglia, by 1997 however the car giant stopped making their own brand of models there and turned its attention to making Jaguar cars, and then Land Rovers from 2007 onwards.
From 2008 onwards the plant has been run by Tata Motors and continues to produce Land Rovers including the Range Rover Evoque, which has brought a large and welcome boost to the plant's prospects following the disappearance of the X-Type from Halewood production lines.
The huge demand and backlog of orders for this SUV has lead to the creation of 1,000 new jobs at the Halewood plant, increasing the total number of staff to 4,500.
Manufacturer:
Jaguar Land Rover
Cars made:
Land Rover Freelander 2, Range Rover Evoque
Opened:
1963 (by Ford)
Annual capacity:
54,030 cars (includes Castle Bromwich plant figures)
Investment:
£1.5 billion (across all UK plants) (as of February 2012)
Castle Bromwich, Birmingham
Originally an aircraft factory, Jaguar eventually took over the Castle Bromwich site and it swapped Spitfires for cars. In time the plant has also fallen into the hands of Ford and Jaguar's current owners Tata Motors.
This plant currently employs over 2,000 workers and it's the only site that's building Jaguar's current range of cars.
Manufacturer:
Jaguar Land Rover
Cars made:
Jaguar XF, Jaguar XJ, Jaguar XK
Opened:
1977
Annual capacity:
54,030 cars (includes Halewood plant figures)
Investment:
£1.5 billion (across all UK plants) (as of February 2012)
Solihull, West Midlands
Located nine miles from Birmingham city centre, the Jaguar Land Rover Solihull plant is presently owned by Tata Motors and build all Land Rover models which aren't made at the brand's Halewood site.
The Solihull plant employs about 6,000 workers and 83 per cent of production is exported from the West Midlands.
A landmark was reached in February 2012, when the millionth Land Rover Discovery rolled off the production line at the plant.
Manufacturer:
Jaguar Land Rover
Cars made:
Land Rover Defender, Land Rover Discovery 4, Range Rover, Range Rover Sport
Opened:
1945
Annual capacity:
234,647 cars (includes Halewood plant figures)
Investment:
£1.5 billion (across all UK plants) (as of February 2012)
Gaydon, Warwickshire
Aston Martin's headquarters and UK plant is located in a small village called Gaydon, which is close to Leamington Spa.
The current entire Aston Martin range is produced at this facility, which was formerly the site of a RAF V-bomber airfield. It isn't the only place Aston Martins are built however. The company does farm out some of its production to the Magna Steyr factory based in Graz, Austria.
The Gaydon factory was first opened as recently as 2003, yet it's the first plant to be ever purpose built for Aston Martin in its near 90-year history.
Manufacturer:
Aston Martin
Cars made:
One-77, Cygnet, DB9, DBS, Vantage, Virage
Opened:
2003
Annual capacity:
7,500 cars maximum
Crewe
Volkswagen-owned marque Bentley produces its current entire range at a plant in Crewe, Cheshire.
The facility currently employs 4,000 people and that number is set to increase by 500 during 2012 thanks mainly to a £3 million Regional Growth Fund received from the Government.
Most car plants rely mainly on machines to assemble cars on the production line; however each car at the Bentley plant is handmade. Virtually every part from the leather stitching to the seats and panels are physically put together by the staff in Crewe.
Manufacturer:
Bentley
Cars made:
Azure, Brooklands, Continental GT and Flying Spur, Mulsanne
Opened:
1937
Annual capacity:
10,014
Investment:
£500 million (est.)
Swindon
Since the eighties Japanese car giant Honda has situated production facilities in the town of Swindon.
The plant suffered several setbacks caused by the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and the 2011 Japan earthquake disaster, reducing production numbers as the site shut down to avoid over-supplying and then having difficulties sourcing parts from Japan in 2011.
However as we progress through 2012 the facility is on the ascendency again, and plans to add 500 workers to its current 3,000 staff total. This is for a third shift at the plant which will start in May 2012.
Manufacturer:
Honda
Cars made:
CR-V, Jazz, Civic
Opened:
1985
Annual capacity:
237,783 cars
Hethel, Norfolk
Lotus Cars currently builds its current range as well as specially-tuned racing models within a small village in Norfolk. The facility there employs a total of 1,200 members of staff.
When the British brand was taken over by Proton, the owners bankrolled an ambitious £200m plan to create hundreds more jobs and boost the facility's capacity by more than double to 7,000 units by 2014.
Whether this plan can ever come into fruition is presently unclear, due to ongoing uncertainty about Lotus' ownership and cash flow.
Manufacturer:
Lotus
Cars made:
Elise, Exige, Evora, Europa S, 2-Eleven
Opened:
1966
Annual capacity:
2,935
Woking
A recent and certainly noteworthy example is the McLaren Production Centre, located right next to the company's Technology Centre and Headquarters.
The production site was built in 2011 to allow quick and large-scale production of their new and in-demand road car the MP4-12C. The facility will provide the platform to near future McLaren road cars to.
Pictures of the site show that it is a massive and impressively hi-tech facility with the impeccably clean and organised appearance that ties in with the company's obsessively-detailed philosophy.
Legend has it than McLaren are in the process of ripping the entire floor to ensure that whole tiles cover the floor from wall-to-wall, with no split or cut tiles used at all.
Manufacturer:
McLaren
Cars made:
MP4-12C
Opened:
2011
Annual capacity:
4,000 cars (planned)
Investment:
£50 million
Longbridge, Birmingham
The Longbridge plant first started making cars for the defunct British icon Austin from early on in the 20th Century and up until 1988 when the MG Rover took over.
This remained the case up until 2005 when MG Rover collapsed and the factory was shut down, costing 6,500 jobs.
While new owners were found in the Chinese company SAIC group, a worringly long period passed putting doubt on the prospect of production ever happening again at Longbridge.
SAIC did eventually commit to a plan however and the factory was restarted in 2008. Now the site is building cars under the MG badge again and is employing a considerably smaller workforce of around 400 staff.
Manufacturer:
MG
Cars made:
MG6
Opened:
1906 (by Austin)
Annual capacity:
1,000-2,000 cars
Cowley, Oxford
The BMW-owned British brand Mini assembles the majority of its car range at a plant in Oxford. This site forms a production triangle with two other plants in Warwickshire and Swindon where engines and body pressings are completed.
The Oxford plant has been around for a long time, starting off as the production site for the Morris Oxford before moving on to the original Mini and later on various other models for British Leyland. Cars carrying the Austin, the Triumph and Rover badge have all rolled off the production line here.
Since 2001 BMW has dedicated the plant to build cars under the Mini brand and today employs 4,500 workers.
Manufacturer:
Mini
Cars made:
Hatchback, Clubman, Convertible, Coupe, Roadster
Opened:
1913
Annual capacity:
260,000 cars
Investment:
£500 million (as of 2011)
Goodwood
Another classic British brand owned by BMW, Rolls-Royce moved into its current production site at the start of 2003 and builds its entire range here. Prior to their arrival here, Rolls-Royce cars were built at the same Crewe plant which currently produced Bentleys.
The plant at Goodwood presently employs 800 workers, about half of which work in the company's wood and leather shops.
Manufacturer:
Rolls-Royce
Cars made:
Ghost, Phantom
Opened:
2003
Annual capacity:
3,538 cars
Burnaston, Derby
The Toyota plant in Burnaston currently assembles two models from the company's line-up and has in the past rolled out the high-selling Corolla family car off its production line.
Like other Japanese manufacturers such as Honda for example, Toyota's performance in the UK was dealt a blow by events such as the 2008 financial crisis and the Japanese earthquake disaster in 2011. Nevertheless both Toyota and the British Government have gone out their way to safeguard the jobs and facility here.
The plant currently employs over 3,100 workers and is set to add 1,500 extra jobs over the next couple of years. The first 500 new workers are expected to arrive in the middle of 2012.
Manufacturer:
Toyota
Cars made:
Avensis, Auris
Opened:
1989
Annual capacity:
277,637 cars
Investment:
£100 million (as of 2011)
Ellesmere Port
Vauxhall's one and only car plant in the UK has been around for over fifty years now but its current fate beyond 2014 is uncertain at the moment, as Vauxhall's owners General Motors weighs up methods to cut costs and over-capacity.
The facility currently employs about 2,800 workers and provides the Astra model range to UK motorists. At its peak this plant is believed to have a total capacity of 187,000 units.
Manufacturer:
Vauxhall
Cars made:
Astra
Opened:
1962
Annual capacity:
145,000 cars
Other mentions
There are other factories located across the UK which don't strictly build cars but are noteworthy to the UK motoring industry nevertheless. For instance BMW has an engine plant located in Hams Hall, North Warwickshire which supports the Oxford-based Mini factory.
General Motors operates a plant in Luton which builds high-selling van models including the Vauxhall Vivaro and the Renault Trafic.
Another US car giant, Ford, doesn't build cars in the UK but has a large presence in the local industry nevertheless with two large scale engine plants found in Bridgend and Dagenham. Ford also builds the timeless Transit van at a plant in Southampton which boasts an annual capacity of 75,662 units.