Two years after Covid first hit us, the automotive sector in the UK remains badly battered, but still alive and vibrant. It’s down, but not out.

And believe it or not, in some departments it’s better today than two years ago. I accessed the comparable numbers (Spring 2020 vs Spring 2022). Luckily, they state that we still have over 60 specialty manufacturers and our top seven premium and sports car manufacturers remain.

The number of mainstream manufacturers fell from six to five, thanks to Honda’s abandonment of its Swindon plant. But the thing is, the struggling isolated company (now in need of a new partner or owner, surely) has long since lost its appetite for building cars in Blighty.

On a happier note, during the same pandemic-ravaged period, the number of automotive supply companies here has grown from over 2,400 to over 2,500, while vehicle design centers on our soil almost doubled – from five to nine. Impressed ? We should be.

Admittedly, two years ago Britain was celebrating new car sales of 2.3 million (and UK production of 1.2 million) in 2019. And today we’re forced to think that just 1 .6 million were purchased (only 860,000 built here) in 2021. Not good.

That said, we shouldn’t be shocked by these numbers. For much of the pandemic, consumers weren’t able to test drive and be enticed by new vehicles, due to laws that prohibited dealerships from opening.

Difficulties in the supply of components and vehicles as well as transport problems were – and remain – additional undesirable problems. And the icing on the cake is that over the past two years, many manufacturers have dramatically increased their retail prices to what some consumers now consider to be prohibitively high.

Surprise, surprise, all of the above has encouraged countless drivers to stick with cars they already have or opt for newer but not brand new versions, especially since many of them are working on home these days. They say their new low-mileage or low-commute lifestyles mean they don’t need (and perhaps can’t afford) expensive new cars they would almost never use. And that’s an argument the auto industry needs to address if it’s serious about getting new car sales back to pre-Covid levels.

What the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders describes as ‘people employed in the UK motor industry’ totaled 864,000 two years ago. Today it’s 797,000. And while these job losses are often tragedies for undesirable workers and their families, there are some bright spots. Almost 800,000 people (156,000 of them in manufacturing) still earn a decent living in the UK automotive industry, making it one of the biggest employers in the UK. And the SMMT’s forecast for “job creation” in the auto industry has doubled since 2020.

We have the talented workers, famous brands, state-of-the-art factories and world-class design studios to justify a million UK automotive jobs in the years to come. Scotland and Northern Ireland must join the club of car manufacturers. Let the growth and massive recruitment campaign begin – starting with formal invitation/incentive letters from the UK Government to Tesla and Hyundai asking each to open a factory in Britain.

Click here for our list of the best selling cars in the UK…