25 percent of the tariff imposed by President Trump on imported cars has increased the pressure on vehicles around the world, but the pain in the flagging auto industry can be especially intense.
It is Britain that exports more than 70 percent of cars. In 2021, it sent about 5 vehicles – about 5 percent per cent of the car export, which is priced .6..6 billion pounds (about $ 1.5 billion) – according to an industrial group Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. The tariffs now threatened to close what was one of Britain’s largest markets.
For decades, Britain Land Rover has gained fame for the creation of innovative and iconic vehicles like Defender and Maurice Miner, which helped to help the ownership of the car affordable because the country emerged from World War II.
In recent years, however, the auto industry has fought to maintain the speed because it transfer global transfer to electric vehicles and the main export market of Britain, which overcomes the barrier to the European Union.
The number of annual cars made in Britain has dropped by about 570,000 since the end of the last decade. It imports a lot more cars now.
It is impossible for the auto industry to know what level of tariff will be due to the rapid policy of the Trump administration. However, Washington’s steps are already bad news for some Carmakers in Britain, which shows the United States as an important growth market.
“It’s about a very worrying step about UK production,” said Peter Wales, a car expert at Cardiff University in Wales. “
Mr Wells said that companies would probably be forced to change their plans, such as production runs and shipping. “So already it is spending money to deal with instability,” he said.
Jaguar and Land Rover vehicle maker JLR said it would suspend the shipment in the US for April. India’s Tata Motors -owned company is one of Britain’s largest vehicle manufacturers, but 28 percent of its sales in North America compared to last year, where it does not make cars.
Any long -term change in the United States can have a big impact for Britain’s automackers. The United States sent only 18,000 vehicles in Britain last year, which imposed 10 percent tariff on US imports.
Some European models of American automakers do well in Britain. Ford Puma, made by Romania in a joint venture, recently made Britain’s top -selling model.
British car production is now dominated by a small group of international organizations including Nissan, which operates a large plant in the Sundarland; BMW, which makes the mini; And Toyota.
To attract investment, especially in new electrical models, these plants need to be able to compete with rivals around the planet. Executives and analysts say that this industry is confronted with a velocity of challenges with high strength expenditure and stress on the network of parties and services suppliers after Brexit.
“In the end, the UK is not a competitive place to make a car today,” Nisan’s senior vice president Alan Johnson told a parliamentary hearing last week for production in the region.
Principal Engineer Stuart Bradley of Warwick Manufacturing Group says a part of Warwick’s University, he thought that high -value brands like JLR or Rolls Royce Motors could have a better future than “product” producers in Britain.
“I think the high-value market is about to be quite strong,” he said.
Unions representing approximately 200,000 employees in Britain’s auto manufacturing anxiety concerns that tariffs are the latest in a series that can lead to job loss or even plant closure.
Some manufacturers have closed British plants in recent years. For example, in 2021, Honda closed a plant in Swindon, which appointed 5,3 people.
The unit, a trade union that represents about 000,6 Ottawa, assumes that only more than half of the British car industry is operating in power, it is probably spreading the profitability that spreads a large amount of expenses.
“It’s not sustainable,” said Des Queen, a national officer of the Automotive unit. “The whole sector is in crisis.”
A lot depends on difficult changes in electric vehicles. The industry says that it is shrinking by the British government’s requirements to increase the sales of a large amount of petrol- and diesel powered cars by 20 years.
Britain made progress quickly to raise its electronic car fleet. The British government said Britain led Europe on the sale of electronic cars in 2021.
Critics, however, say that strict government-driven quotas for the sale of electric vehicles have encouraged the import of electric vehicles like Germany or China-made Teslas at the expense of domestic industry. Chinese automackers like BYD are also entering.
The question is whether British-based manufacturers can be caught in the coming years-especially for ordinary customers to produce small, cheap electric cars.
Mr Wells said, “I’m not completely confident that all the art will be uncovered,” Mr. Wales said.
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