Companies with operations in the United Kingdom sold US$42 billion worth of exported cars to customers around the globe. That dollar amount reflects a 9.8% improvement from the $38.2 billion in UK car exports in 2013 and a 2.9% gain from 2016 to 2017.



European Union members bought a slightly declining amount of cars exported from the UK, $17.1 billion which represents a -0.4% decrease from $17.2 billion one year earlier in 2016. Still, EU purchases of cars from Britain rose 27.8% compared to the $13.4 billion bought during 2013.



Declining at a faster pace were UK’s imports of cars from EU members, at $38.6 billion sliding -3.6% in value at $38.6 billion down from $40.1 billion during 2016.

UK Car Exports

Top 25 Countries Buying UK Car Exports Consider the following list of major importing countries for automobiles from Britain, which collectively represent 89.9% of the value for all UK exported cars during 2017. Twelve–or just under half–of the top 25 importers of cars shipped from the UK are EU members.



EU countries are bolded among the listed top UK car buyers below. United States: US$8.6 billion (Down -0.7% since 2016) China: $5.4 billion (Up 17.1%) Germany: $3.4 billion (Up 4.5%) Belgium: $3.2 billion (Up 2.1%) Italy: $2.3 billion (Up 4%) Spain: $1.9 billion (Up 1.9%) Netherlands: $1.4 billion (Down -24.3%) Australia: $1.2 billion (Up 19.4%) France: $1.2 billion (Up 4.4%) Japan: $1.1 billion (Up 13.1%) South Korea: $912.6 million (Up 8.5%) Canada: $869.3 million (Up 20%) Russia: $699.4 million (Up 2.3%) Sweden: $685.1 million (Down -9.6%) Poland: $676.1 million (Up 60.9%) Turkey: $626.7 million (Down -18%) United Arab Emirates: $579.9 million (Down -24.9%) Switzerland: $519.7 million (Up 1.7%) Ireland: $438 million (Down -37%) Austria: $374.1 million (Up 6.1%) Saudi Arabia: $363.1 million (Up 25.3%) Denmark: $340.6 million (Up 15.4%) Norway: $306.9 million (Down -15.6%) New Zealand: $287.2 million (Up 16.3%) Portugal: $273 million (Down -6.7%) Year over year, six of the non-EU countries above posted double-digit gains in their purchases of UK automobiles led by Saudi Arabia’s 25.3% uptick. The other top gainers from 2016 to 2017 were UK car buyers in Canada (up 20%), Australia (up 19.4%), China (up 17.1%), New Zealand (up 16.3%) and Japan (up 13.1%).



Changes in purchases of UK vehicles for the bolded EU customers fluctuated from a -37% cutback for Ireland up to a 60.9% year-over-year uptick for Poland.

UK Car Imports

Top 25 Countries Supplying UK Car Import Purchases From the list of major suppliers of cars exported to the UK, 15 or 75% were member-countries belonging to the European Union. The EU members below represent 87.3% of the total value of the UK’s imported cars bought in 2017.



EU countries are bolded among the listed top UK car suppliers below. Germany: US$19.8 billion (Down -3.1% since 2016) Belgium: $6.9 billion (Down -4.2%) Spain: $3.9 billion (Down -14.2%) Japan: $2 billion (Down -8.4%) France: $1.7 billion (Up 4.4%) South Korea: $1.6 billion (Up 3.8%) Slovakia: $1.1 billion (Down -8.6%) Turkey: $1.1 billion (Up 27.1%) Czech Republic: $1.1 billion (Down -15.7%) Netherlands: $930.8 million (Up 136.8%) Poland: $810 million (Down -10.6%) Italy: $789.7 million (Down -16.9%) Sweden: $588.9 million (Up 40.7%) Portugal: $376.2 million (Up 27.4%) South Africa: $349 million (Up 5.8%) Hungary: $186.8 million (Down -35%) Austria: $166.4 million (Down -14.6%) Romania: $151.5 million (Up 61.5%) Morocco: $151.1 million (Up 15.1%) Mexico: $139.6 million (Down -2.5%) India: $60.9 million (Down -54%) China: $54.6 million (Up 10.6%) Thailand: $54 million (Down -25.1%) United States: $51.2 million (Up 51.9%) Slovenia: $35.8 million (Up 3.2%) Among the bolded top EU suppliers to the UK, the Netherlands boosted its car sales to Britain by the greatest percentage up 136.8% from 2016 to 2017. Double-digit increases belong to EU countries Romania (up 61.5%), Sweden (up 40.7%) and Portugal (up 27.4%).



Year-over-year changes in the international sales of cars from top non-EU exporters to the UK range from a -54% drop for India up to a 51.9% boost for American car makers.

EU Car Makers