“We have just had three horrible years. » Mike Hawes, the director of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, which represents the British motor industry, is not trying to gloss over the situation. In 2022, according to statistics released on Thursday January 26, 775,000 vehicles rolled off the country’s assembly lines, the lowest since… 1956. This represents a drop of almost 10% compared to 2021, itself a catastrophic year. Compared to 2019, before the pandemic, the fall is 40%.
The immediate reason for the shock is shared around the world: the difficulties in supplying spare parts, and especially electronic chips. Today, in the United Kingdom, to buy certain vehicles, it is necessary to wait up to a year in the worst case.
But the ills of Britain’s auto industry run much deeper, with serious complications from Brexit, a major delay in the shift to electric vehicles and a government without strategy. “We see an increase in protectionism around the world, with the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States [qui accorde des subventions pour les voitures électriques qui sont construites sur place] and Europe preparing a response. The UK must define a vision to cope”warns Mr. Hawes.
A single investment in a large battery factory
The closure of two factories – one of which temporarily – has particularly affected vehicle production. In the summer of 2021, the Honda factory in Swindon, in the south-west of England, stopped working for good. It essentially manufactured a model on the decline, the Civic, in particular diesels, and required significant investments to update it. Partly due to Brexit, which made trade relations with the European Union (EU) uncertain, the Japanese brand decided in 2019 not to continue.
For its part, the Vauxhall factory in Ellesmere Port (north-west of England) stopped production of the Astra, also an aging vehicle, in the spring of 2022. But the manufacturer – which belongs to Stellantis – has decided to invest 100 million pounds (113 million euros) to produce there from this year electric vans, in particular Citroën ë-Berlingo. However, this temporary closure weighs on production statistics.
In the shift to electric, the UK has fallen behind. Admittedly, 30% of its production now concerns electric or hybrid vehicles. But the country has, for the moment, only one investment in a large battery factory, called “gigafactory”that of Envision, which should open in 2025, attached to the Nissan plant in northern England.
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