| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:The Squalid Campaign | |
| Posted by: | Ken Munn | |
| Date/Time: | 09/06/16 17:26:00 |
| "Toyota may have said it will carry on building cars in the UK, but comments from Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn leave big question marks over whether its Sunderland plant, which builds the Leaf, Qashqai, and Pulsar, would remain viable in the wake of a Brexit. “Our preference, as a business, is that the UK stays within Europe,” he wrote in a statement. “It makes the most sense for jobs, trade and costs. For us, a position of stability is more positive than a collection of unknowns.” Doesn't sound like a 100% vote of confidence in UK post Britex to me. It's difficult to shift production of a model from one plant to another, so what tends to happen is that manufacturing of that model remains where it is until the model is replaced. It's at the point of planning the replacement model that decisions are taken on where to locate manufacturing. So it's quite possible, hand on heart, for a car industry person to say they have no plans to move production elsewhere, because they know that each time there's a new model (and investment in the old one is written off) then a whole new set of criteria come in to play. That's how Ford sneaked out of UK vehicle manufacturing. Bear in mind that 8 in 10 Nissans are exported and 9 in 10 Toyotas are exported out of the UK – with Europe being the biggest market for both brand’s vehicles. To think that such global brands would continue long-term to manufacture in the UK IF tariff barriers are erected is pie-in-the-sky. JCB operates in market I know nothing about, but my perception is that it is a global brand with a close-to-unique product range, so maybe it feels less threatened by competition and trade barriers than the car sector. |