April saw only fifteen commercial vehicles manufactured in UK

Unsurprising and yet stark figures from the SMMT show that just 15 commercial vehicles rolled off GB production lines in April.

CV output dropped by 99.3% as plants were forced to close their doors due to the Covid-19 pandemic, leaving just a handful of vehicles to leave the factory gates in order to complete existing UK orders.

There were zero exports during the month.

Year-to-date CV production fell by 27.6% on what was described by the SMMT as already an “exceptionally weak April in 2019”, when volumes fell by more than 70% due to planned factory closures timed to mitigate disruption caused from the anticipated March Brexit.

Although vehicle production was effectively halted in April, the SMMT said many manufacturers continued to make spare parts and offer R&M services to help keep essential vehicles on the road.

However, Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said scaling up to full capacity represented “an incredible challenge”: “To accelerate a sustainable recovery of this critical and fundamentally strong industry and futureproof jobs, we will need government’s ongoing support,” he added.