Britain’s car industry is finding Brexit far less of a problem than expected

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Brexit put Britain’s highly productive motor industry at risk. The government's solution involves large subsidies

Before the vote, things had been going swimmingly for Britain’s motor industry. Production hit a two-decade high in 2016, at over 1.8m units. Measured by vehicles per employee, Britain had become one of Europe’s most productive carmakers by 2016, with around 160,000 employees producing almost 11 vehicles each annually, compared with anaverage of less than eight. By making it harder to transport parts across borders, Brexit put this at risk.

“Rules of origin” requirements are more troublesome. These aim to stop companies importing goods from a third country, and re-exporting them as if they were domestically produced. For the purpose of tariffs, theas a single bloc, but excludes countries with which both have a trade deal, such as Japan. By 2027 the percentage of components by value originating from outside Britain or theEU

All this coincides with industry-wide reinvention, as carmakers shift to electric vehicles. Batteries, like the engines of petrol-fuelled cars, are expensive. “If you are not sourcing the batteries domestically, I don’t see how you can stay compliant,” says a production manager. Britain currently lacks a so-called “gigafactory”—a word coined by Elon Musk of Tesla—to mass-produce them.

 

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Were you not the ones banging on about 'the free market' and now sponsoring a lifetime of subsidies to industry, my dear ?

Where you not the ones banging on about 'the free market' and now sponsoring a lifetime of subsidies to industry, my dear ?

Exports. Domestic. Sorted.

Buy American die American

…👋🏻ciaone… Brexit

horrible

Boris, trying out another job

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