UK car industry - what's left and for how long?
Discussion
Every week seems to have a new story about problems for the UK car industry, whether it's Ford, Lotus or anyone else. At the same time new brands like BYD and Omoda are pressing ahead, and also the resurrected MG badge.
With even the biggest Western manufacturers in a spin over what to build and how to sell it (let alone price) what's the future for UK?
With even the biggest Western manufacturers in a spin over what to build and how to sell it (let alone price) what's the future for UK?
Yes indeed, and the question I'm asking is why would any of them want to be in UK?
This combines many concepts all the way from the EV debate through Labour's "budget to suppress growth" and the immigration situation, whether for cheap labour or for skills that we're lacking. The absence of joined-up thinking looks high risk to me.
This combines many concepts all the way from the EV debate through Labour's "budget to suppress growth" and the immigration situation, whether for cheap labour or for skills that we're lacking. The absence of joined-up thinking looks high risk to me.
I think you need to consider what is made here, what is designed here, what is owned here, and what is sold here separately.
We binned our usefulness as a place for overseas companies to build cars for the EU market with Brexit. I don't think there is anything about our labour market which would make us particularly attractive as a base for assembly.
We still have a decent amount of expertise in automotive design and engineering, and a decent amount of that is done here.
A large chunk of our domestic car industry has been foreign owned for a long time - either because British firms have been bought or because overseas firms have established operations here. I don't think it really matters, I'm not really sure domestic ownership does a huge amount for us.
What is sold here is subject to the effect of things like the ZEV mandate. If we had a big industry of domestic manufacturers, owned, designing, building, and primarily selling their product here, that would probably matter. We don't really.
We binned our usefulness as a place for overseas companies to build cars for the EU market with Brexit. I don't think there is anything about our labour market which would make us particularly attractive as a base for assembly.
We still have a decent amount of expertise in automotive design and engineering, and a decent amount of that is done here.
A large chunk of our domestic car industry has been foreign owned for a long time - either because British firms have been bought or because overseas firms have established operations here. I don't think it really matters, I'm not really sure domestic ownership does a huge amount for us.
What is sold here is subject to the effect of things like the ZEV mandate. If we had a big industry of domestic manufacturers, owned, designing, building, and primarily selling their product here, that would probably matter. We don't really.
king arthur said:
Bloody hell, what a shame!MG seem to have understood buyers concerns in regards to quality. Having had a good prod around the cars which were launched this year, the improvement over previous cars is vast.
If other manufacturers cotton on to this, it won't be too bad going forward, but I highly doubt it, given what I've seen launched - and the RRP figures!
If other manufacturers cotton on to this, it won't be too bad going forward, but I highly doubt it, given what I've seen launched - and the RRP figures!
king arthur said:
That is massive news for the UK vehicle industry.Had there been any rumours about a closure? It seems very out of the blue.
BenS94 said:
MG seem to have understood buyers concerns in regards to quality. Having had a good prod around the cars which were launched this year, the improvement over previous cars is vast.
If other manufacturers cotton on to this, it won't be too bad going forward, but I highly doubt it, given what I've seen launched - and the RRP figures!
Damn right. One great British brand that has done really well.If other manufacturers cotton on to this, it won't be too bad going forward, but I highly doubt it, given what I've seen launched - and the RRP figures!
As an engineer in the automotive area, the industry is on the downturn for a while but since Brexit, this just threw fuel on the bonfire.
Caterham, Atom BAC are still build and designed here. But these are small fry compared to the big players which are downsizing / moving elsewhere cause of the fact we removed ourselves from the EU, thus no real access to that market and the UK market is a small market compared to the US, EU and Asian Markets.
Caterham, Atom BAC are still build and designed here. But these are small fry compared to the big players which are downsizing / moving elsewhere cause of the fact we removed ourselves from the EU, thus no real access to that market and the UK market is a small market compared to the US, EU and Asian Markets.
Sf_Manta said:
As an engineer in the automotive area, the industry is on the downturn for a while but since Brexit, this just threw fuel on the bonfire.
Caterham, Atom BAC are still build and designed here. But these are small fry compared to the big players which are downsizing / moving elsewhere cause of the fact we removed ourselves from the EU, thus no real access to that market and the UK market is a small market compared to the US, EU and Asian Markets.
So another Brexit win. Marvellous. Caterham, Atom BAC are still build and designed here. But these are small fry compared to the big players which are downsizing / moving elsewhere cause of the fact we removed ourselves from the EU, thus no real access to that market and the UK market is a small market compared to the US, EU and Asian Markets.
Other than those specialist manufacturers which fortunately seem to be relatively buoyant and assembly of parts to produce cars; the UK has long since given up proper mainstream motor manufacturing.
Just to remind people also Ford are an American company.
Terminator X said:
Lotus is Chinese owned. As is MG.
TX.
Yep on this we agree and Ford is American. UK PLC has been for sale for ages. Even our high tech sector manufactures like AMD were sold off. The cale of foreign ownership of UK assets, land, property and business would probably shock all of us. Of course it does work the other way too to an extent.TX.
Edited by Terminator X on Friday 22 November 12:30
C69 said:
king arthur said:
That is massive news for the UK vehicle industry.Had there been any rumours about a closure? It seems very out of the blue.
It's not really massive news since the factory isn't a volume car plant such as MINI (oxford) or Nissan (sunderland) -- both of which are much bigger in terms of staff -- MINI's about 4x and Nissan about 6x bigger.
Car production itself is a problem at the moment -- see VW looking to close factories and make staff redundant in Germany.
Brexit having put the UK outside the EU doesn't help UK production stay alive. Remain said this was a risk, leave said it wasn't. Make up your own mind as to which you think is correct.
CraigyMc said:
C69 said:
king arthur said:
That is massive news for the UK vehicle industry.Had there been any rumours about a closure? It seems very out of the blue.
It's not really massive news since the factory isn't a volume car plant such as MINI (oxford) or Nissan (sunderland) -- both of which are much bigger in terms of staff -- MINI's about 4x and Nissan about 6x bigger.
Car production itself is a problem at the moment -- see VW looking to close factories and make staff redundant in Germany.
Brexit having put the UK outside the EU doesn't help UK production stay alive. Remain said this was a risk, leave said it wasn't. Make up your own mind as to which you think is correct.
I'd call the potential loss of 1,100 manufacturing jobs massive news. Others might not think that it's particularly significant, which of course they're entitled to do.
We have the big Toyota plant here still at the moment. I’ve owned two cars built there, my current Corolla was too.
Toyota only has one EV on sale, so it won’t be anywhere near the 22% of sales that have to be EV this year… so it’s a £15,000 fine per non EV car that they sell?
Seems terminal
there’s no way a manufacturer can deal with that loss.
Toyota only has one EV on sale, so it won’t be anywhere near the 22% of sales that have to be EV this year… so it’s a £15,000 fine per non EV car that they sell?
Seems terminal
there’s no way a manufacturer can deal with that loss. Forums | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff