Greetings from London!
Britain’s voters elected a new government at the end of last week, turfing out the Conservatives after a 14-year reign. Without question, for the auto industry one act from the Tories’ long rule eclipses everything else: Brexit.
As far as automakers are concerned, Brexit has seen Britain repeatedly undermine its own trade and economy, eight years after the 2016 referendum, by eroding ties with the biggest market for British-made cars – the European Union.
Britain’s automakers have lived through a series of stressful milestones. They were forced to stockpile parts out of fear of post-Brexit shortages, and have had to swiftly adapt to the Conservative government abruptly abandoning a 2030 target to end the sale of fossil-fuel cars, and a last-minute deal in December to avoid tariffs on electric vehicles traded between Britain and the EU.
In the run-up to that deal, Stellantis threatened that its UK plants could close if EV tariffs were imposed. Just before the July 4 election the automaker threatened the same again if aggressive government EV sales targets with punitive fines for non-compliance were not offset by incentives to buy electric cars.
The message to the incoming British government was clear: if you make life tough, we can make our cars elsewhere.
The auto industry will watch the new Labour government’s moves carefully. Labour has promised to reinstate the 2030 ban on the sale of pure fossil-fuel cars, but plans for the sales targets and the heavy fines that come with them are not yet known.
Meanwhile, although Jaguar Land Rover parent Tata announced last year it would build a $5.1 billion EV battery plant in Britain, the auto industry has long complained that post-Brexit Britain has fallen behind the EU in the race to build a competitive electric car industry.
What could possibly go wrong?
Which brings us to today’s Auto File…