Car manufacturing
SMMT CEO Mike Hawes said the future success of the UK car manufacturing industry would depend on continued investment in plant and products Reuters

The production of cars in the UK has increased 9.1% year-on-year to 109,004 in August, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has said. The industry body which collates these figures added that this marked a new 14-year high.

Mike Hawes, chief executive at SMMT said that this increase was amid good demand for UK-made cars and recent investments in the country. "British car producers are exporting a diverse range of high quality, attractive new models that are in demand across the world. [This is] thanks to multi-billion pound investments made in UK plants over the past few years," he said.

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Of these cars that rolled out of British factories last month, 27,804 were for sale in the UK, while the remaining 81,200 were manufactured for export purposes. While the domestic demand showed a 6.2% increase from August 2015, the export figures reflected an increase of 10.2%. SMMT further said that for the year to August 2016, car production had increased 11.1% to a total of 1.7 million vehicles.

Hawes was cited by the BBC as further saying that the country depended on the car manufacturing sector to increase exports. He added that the current figures were "good news for car makers and welcome news for the UK economy."

This follows many manufacturers in the UK expressing concerns about the industry post the referendum vote. They had said that car manufacturing in the country could suffer if Brexit negotiations don't go in the UK's favour. Not getting access to a single market and higher trade tariffs were some of the concerns expressed earlier.

Vauxhall for instance announced last month that it was planning to cut production of its Insignia and Corsa models. The British automotive manufacturer, which is an affiliate of German carmaker Opel, said this was amid various factors including worries that the Brexit vote would hurt its UK sales.

With regards to this, a SMMT spokesperson said it was "too early to tell" if the Brexit vote was having any affect on the car industry. However, Hawes said that future success of this industry would depend on "continued investment in plant and products". This he said would in turn depend "on the UK maintaining internationally competitive business and trading conditions."