“There’s a flashing yellow light,” said Palmer. “If they are not equipping the next generation EV in Sunderland, and everything is going electric, that is a concern.”
Britain was once one of the world’s largest carmakers, its glamor epitomized by Rolls-Royce, Bentley and James Bond’s Aston Martin. But auto production peaked in 1972 and has been in decline ever since. Brands like Rover, Austin-Healey or Sunbeam, widely admired but only intermittently profitable, have disappeared. MG, which was once known for two-seater sports cars, belongs to SAIC, a Chinese automaker that uses the brand for a line of SUVs
Almost all surviving British car factories are owned by foreign companies with global footprints, capable of moving production to where it is most efficient. Toyota, which builds Corollas in Derbyshire and employs 3,000 people, is another example.
Being able to export is crucial; 80% of cars produced in Britain are sold abroad.
Brexit was another setback for British automotive production. Four years of uncertainty over Britain’s divorce terms from the European Union, amid a global slump in car sales, discouraged automakers from modernizing their British plants or retrofitting to next generation models.
British car production fell 14% in 2019 compared to the previous year, a bigger drop than any other major auto-producing country except Iran. Britain ended the year in 16th place among auto-manufacturing nations, after the Czech Republic, producing 1.4 million cars and light trucks, according to the International Organization of Automotive Vehicle Manufacturers. And that was before the pandemic caused a drop in car sales worldwide.
The country’s car production will drop further in July, when Honda closes a plant in Swindon that produces the Civics, the Japanese company’s only car plant in Europe. Honda’s weak sales in Europe were the main cause of the closure, which will leave 3,500 people unemployed, but Brexit probably played a role, analysts say.
Suppliers are also closing operations. ZF, a German company that is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of automotive parts, said last year that it would close a plant in Sunderland that employs about 100 people to manufacture components for steering systems.