I wrote the other day about the UK car industry (HERE). Now we see manufacturers beginning to make their feelings known. First it was Ralf Speth of Jaguar Land Rover who told the PM a few days ago they depended on, "free, frictionless, seamless logistics" (HERE). This week we had a flurry of others. Before the referendum they were rather quiet but now they are singing together like a Welsh male voice Choir.
Vauxhall owner Peugeot-Citroen is now warning of "dramatic consequences" (HERE). Carlos Tavares chief executive of PSA, which bought Vauxhall and Opel last year and has operations in Ellesmere Port and Luton, speaking at the Paris Motor Show said. "If we don't have free trade conditions then of course we will have to adapt. That may have dramatic consequences for our operations in the UK, which of course we would like to avoid as much as possible. So for us the situation is crystal clear, we need free trade. That's the number one request."
Toyota said they would be forced to halt car production in the UK if there is a no-deal Brexit. Johan Van Zyl, the chief executive of Toyota Europe, said (HERE) it would have to temporarily close its Derbyshire plant, which employs about 600 people, and its future would be uncertain.
And BMW say (HERE) they would increase production at their Dutch Mini plant in the event of a hard Brexit. Oxford only produces about 60% of Minis and uses a lot of German components to do it so BMW do have some quick options.
Honda had earlier talked (HERE) about a loss of competitiveness and increased costs but say they are committed to Swindon.
Nissan then released a statement (HERE) which included this:
"Since 1986, the UK has been a production base for Nissan in Europe. Our British-based research and development and design teams support the development of products made in Sunderland, specifically for the European market."
This is the single market that we plan to leave next year. Ominous or what?
And although you can't lose something you never had, Mercedes-Benz announced they had abandoned plans to build some cars in the UK at the Nissan plant in Sunderland after the Brexit vote (HERE). This brings me neatly to a report in The Sunderland Echo (HERE) sub titled: 19 things you said about Nissan's warning over post-Brexit future of its Sunderland car plant. A year ago the 19 things would have been unprintable (scaremongering, etc) but I note now that eighteen of the comments are anti-Brexit. This one sums it up best for me:
Yet the good people of Sunderland cheered the result of the referendum in 2016 to the rafters. What a tragedy. Would the result be the same today? Amazingly it could be.
And finally, we seem to be edging towards a deal of some kind with the EU. But it is likely to fall well short of the "free, frictionless and seamless" logistics that Ralf Speth of JLR was calling for. What will this do for car manufacturing in the UK? As Paul Daniels used to say - not a lot.
