Cable puts brakes on UK car industry

[MX7]

Cable puts brakes on UK car industry

I hope the £5,000 subsidy for buyers of electric cars is scrapped.

[AnotherClarkey]

Isn't that mostly 'Cable puts brakes on almost exclusively foreign car industry that makes some cars in the UK'?

[Randy Winkman]

About a million cars a year are made in the UK.

[AnotherClarkey]

Randy Winkman said:

About a million cars a year are made in the UK.

But how much of the profit stays here?

[fido]

AnotherClarkey said:

But how much of the profit stays here?

http://www.berr.gov.uk/policies/business-sectors/automotive

"Overall, automotive manufacturing provides 180,000 jobs and contributes some £10.2 billion value-added to the UK economy (6.4% of the total for the whole UK manufacturing sector)." - according to the figures above.

[AnotherClarkey]

I'm not saying that it doesn't contribute to our economy but at the end of the day it is subsidising overseas businesses.

[ringram]

Subsidies are communist. Thats exactly what the dole etc is.

Behavour and encouragement should be through taxation. (ie) Carbon tax, or lower taxes for business in general. Capital expenditure tweaks etc.

Rasing income tax threshold is also a good idea IMO. If the car industry cant survive without taxpayer handouts, when whats the point!?

[Parrot of Doom]

If they're moving away from subsidies, perhaps they'll stop fking using the money we pay in tax to subsidise everything fking else but the fking roads.

fk those fking fkers.

[markcoznottz]

ringram said:

Subsidies are communist. Thats exactly what the dole etc is.

Behavour and encouragement should be through taxation. (ie) Carbon tax, or lower taxes for business in general. Capital expenditure tweaks etc.

Rasing income tax threshold is also a good idea IMO. If the car industry cant survive without taxpayer handouts, when whats the point!?

Yep, giving you your own money back. Just dont tax so much.

[RichardD]

AnotherClarkey said:

I'm not saying that it doesn't contribute to our economy but at the end of the day it is subsidising overseas businesses.

Foreign manufacturers using British labour is better than foreign manufacturers using foreign labour.

[HundredthIdiot]

RichardD said:

Foreign manufacturers using British labour is better than foreign manufacturers using foreign labour.

All things being equal, yes. But they're not, it costs money. To make the case you need to prove the net effect is economically rather than politically beneficial.

[RichardD]

HundredthIdiot said:

RichardD said:

Foreign manufacturers using British labour is better than foreign manufacturers using foreign labour.

All things being equal, yes. But they're not, it costs money. To make the case you need to prove the net effect is economically rather than politically beneficial.

Your comments are valid but I was on about the manufacturing.

Unless I've missed something the subsidy is for the puchase.

A tangent really, as I am in agreement as to the notion of discounting such an expensive purchase on the offchance it was made in the UK is a bit desperate.

[anonymous-user]

Parrot of Doom said:

If they're moving away from subsidies, perhaps they'll stop fking using the money we pay in tax to subsidise everything fking else but the fking roads.

fk those fking fkers.

10 out of fking 10

Top fking ranting.

[rypt]

MX7 said:

I hope the £5,000 subsidy for buyers of electric cars is scrapped.

why?

[MX7]

rypt said:

MX7 said:

I hope the £5,000 subsidy for buyers of electric cars is scrapped.

why?

Several reasons.

I don't think it's the role of the government to subsidise a private industry. Of course, there are cases where a company/industry needs bailing out in an emergency, but this isn't an emergency.

It's been suggested that car manufacturers inflated their prices to compensate for the scrappage scheme. I can see something similar happening with this, which is counterproductive if your aim is to increase electric transport.

If it's sold as a way to support British industry, then it should only apply to cars manufactured in Britain, which can't happen due to EU competition laws.

I think we have more important places to spend the money at the moment.

Lastly, the electric car market should be able to survive on it's own merits. While the initial outlay might be relatively high, the cost of fuel should be enough incentive to sway people. If it isn't, so be it.

I think that's all.

[rypt]

MX7 said:

rypt said:

MX7 said:

I hope the £5,000 subsidy for buyers of electric cars is scrapped.

why?

Several reasons.

I don't think it's the role of the government to subsidise a private industry. Of course, there are cases where a company/industry needs bailing out in an emergency, but this isn't an emergency.

It's been suggested that car manufacturers inflated their prices to compensate for the scrappage scheme. I can see something similar happening with this, which is counterproductive if your aim is to increase electric transport.

If it's sold as a way to support British industry, then it should only apply to cars manufactured in Britain, which can't happen due to EU competition laws.

I think we have more important places to spend the money at the moment.

Lastly, the electric car market should be able to survive on it's own merits. While the initial outlay might be relatively high, the cost of fuel should be enough incentive to sway people. If it isn't, so be it.

I think that's all.

Many manufacturers have UK R&D sites, many employ British ex-pats in their R&D operations overseas.

Electric cars are the probably future, but in order to speed up their development and uptake we need some government support (perhaps the smarter move is to make electric cars be VAT free, road tax free for the next ~5 years rather than just giving £5k sum - though this would cost more to the government)

We waste enough money, but this is a just cause imo.

[PRTVR]

rypt said:

MX7 said:

I hope the £5,000 subsidy for buyers of electric cars is scrapped.

why?

Electric cars are a joke! no body has thought it through,every time you see one it is on a sunny day,
most of the time in Britain its cold, take the last winter how many of you would want to get in your car on a morning and not have a heater? or if you use the heater you can only get to the end of the road,I think that they are not really practical for our climate, may work in california but not in the UK.

Phil

[The real Apache]

Good start but they really need to put the brakes on the millions of subsidies to pointless windmill farms

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/windpower/...

[rypt]

PRTVR said:

rypt said:

MX7 said:

I hope the £5,000 subsidy for buyers of electric cars is scrapped.

why?

Electric cars are a joke! no body has thought it through,every time you see one it is on a sunny day,
most of the time in Britain its cold, take the last winter how many of you would want to get in your car on a morning and not have a heater? or if you use the heater you can only get to the end of the road,I think that they are not really practical for our climate, may work in california but not in the UK.

Phil

Batteries are constantly improving, motors generate heat also that can be re-used, as do brakes

[tinman0]

rypt said:

Batteries are constantly improving, motors generate heat also that can be re-used, as do brakes

I just don't see where we are going with batteries. Battery technology is not a technology that has stood still over the years. Battery technology today is in trouble. For instance the biggest problem with smart phones are the batteries, and they way they are improving the battery life isn't so much newer technology, but by making the devices more efficient in the first place. Smart phone battery problems was something in a speech by the Nokia CTO a couple of years ago.

Things like longer running batteries in laptops in the last year or two (eg Apple MacBook Pros) isn't a significant increase because of a leap in battery technology, but the fact they changed the battery shape so they could pack more into the laptop itself.

And the biggest problem with batteries is that they are fantastically environmentally unfriendly things. Expensive to produce, and expensive to the environment they are meant to be saving.

Motor technology isn't a technology that's sat still either. Electric motors have been used for an awful long time, refining electric motors has long since started.

And as for braking power - maybe great for towns - but not so good for motorways.