Briefly 24 March

by Robin Roberts

Double-digit growth in demand for British-built cars last month helped deliver the biggest February for UK car production in 17 years, said the SMMT.

UK production lines turned out one car every 16 seconds in the month, with total output of 153,041 up 8.0%, as exports grew 13.4% to 118,898 units.

The performance helped to drive overall year-to-date production past 300,000 for the first time since 2002, with output rising 7.8% to 301,004 units.² In the first two months of the year, exports of UK-made cars grew 12.1%, with 236,834 units shipped abroad, offsetting a decline in domestic demand of -5.6% to 64,170.

CV production fell by 6.3%, with the home market sales down over 30% while exports rose 15.6%.

The famous London Black Cab is going electric.

London Taxi Company opened a new Coventry factory to produce electric taxis which it also hopes to sell overseas for the first time.

It's Britain's first electric vehicle factory and will help the firm to expand overseas as part of a £300 million-pound investment.

The TX5 model will use EV powertrain with a petrol engine working as a generator to ensure the vehicle completes a day's work without having to return to base to recharge.

BMW has selected NEDCAR in the Netherlands to build the next X1.

It leaves a question mark over the future of MINI Plant Oxford as BMW said future investment would depend on the outcome of Brexit talks and the small BMW is closely related to MINI models, which could be moved to Holland as a result of unfavourable terms.