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| Toyota Corolla assembly at Burnaston, Derby |
Of course, the self centred indifference of the UK public toward fellow workers in the country persists but that has been a persistent blight on the industry for some time now so hasn't caused the dip that has come of late.
Nissan: It accounted for 31% of total passenger car volume. The Qashqai contributed 157,000 units, Juke 50,000 and Leaf 31,000.
MINI: BMW has been pressing for a handout to put electric production into the UK when surely it has no choice but to. If it doesn't it may as well pull out altogether as the market goes electric. It claims the UK will always be the home of the MINI so a conflicted stance. Posturing aside, I estimate 30,000 Clubmans were made at Oxford with the balance of 156,000 cars being the Hatch / soft top.
Land Rover: 170,000 units with estimates suggesting the Ranger Rover's share being 43,000 and the Evoque at 40,000. The big hitting Defender is made elsewhere.
Toyota: I feel more could be done by Toyota to better use capacity at Burnaston and maybe it will in the future. Ending the Avensis without a replacement model has affected plant utilisation. The Corolla is the sole model assembled and I don't know whether the Suzuki Swace is included in the 105k figure.
Jaguar: The F-Pace made up at least 25,000 of the total. with F-Type about 5,000 units. The XF and XE have just about been pensioned off, probably due to resources being directed to more profitable products with JLR.
Others: I never thought I'd see the day the brand would outproduce Vauxhall in the UK but that day has come. The Bentayga is running hot but the main reason for the change in fortunes is Vauxhall moving to light commercial production and ending passenger car assembly. Ellesmere Port is no longer the home of the Astra.
Both Aston Martin and Rolls Royce had good years with their SUV models doing the business. The Caterham figure is purely a guess on my part.
Summary: The worst is now behind the passenger car manufacturing in the UK but new plants are heading to lower wage countries. How much can be done to entice new investment is a moot point but maybe this is as good as it gets.
It is scary to see that Slovakia makes more cars than the UK, not to mention Czech Republic (each).
ReplyDeleteFrom that perspective, your comment is valid, but so are the doubts about it.
Also, I do not see any grand strategy at national level. I recall when Hungary announced the opening of the Mercedes factory, there was no doubt that the government will dedicate every effort to the cause, the Factory was running in some two years.
The Land Rover factory in Slovakia was also operational within a short period of time.
I have not seen such dedication by the UK government, apart from Theresa May's promises to compensate manufacturers for Brexit related losses.
The UK public has about zero interest in supporting locally made. UK made vehicles can't even achieve 10% of the domestic market. They will all moan if the industry disappears but will fail see it was their apathy that brought it about. The UK still has a car industry despite the British public, not because of it.
ReplyDeleteThere are many open markets in Europe, like Belgium and Netherlands, not bound to any particular nations, and also quite affluent.
DeleteJLR could not really find a hold on them and also on their domestic market.
Protecting your open car brands is not the job of buyers. Nationalistic slogans usually fail in the long run (see e.g. '80s US during the Japanese "invasion").
Belgium is one of JLR's best markets in Europe by market share.
DeleteOf course, people should buy what they want but most countries rely on local support. Volvo is the best selling brand in Sweden, Fiat in Italy, Lada in Russia and Škoda is miles ahead in the Czech Rep. JLR is so far behind any of the big three German brands, it's staggering. Even in NZ, JLR sometimes outsells any of the three mentioned some months.
Deletezold fulu
22:24 (0 minutes ago)
to RayCee
The German brands are strong everywhere. Oddly enough, Jaguar (and JLR) underperforms even next to Volvo (who is only at home in Sweden, Belgium and to some extent in the Netherlands).
Belgium is a surprisingly large (over half a million new cars a year) and very posh market. As you also pointed pout in your article (and you make really great ones on national markets god bless you for those! ), BMW outsells every brand Belgium, which is insane! So no wonder JLR performs rather well too. Plus the Belgians (still) appreciate British cars, right now there is a 60th anniversary E Type exhibition there, and last year they had a brilliant British car exhibition.
There is a strong fan base for British classics, and considering the high share of premium cars, JLR could perform much better.
Thank you for your kind words.
DeleteJLR have excellent products but need to tidy up on niggling faults that hurt its image.