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The resurgence of car manufacturing in the UK is a great triumph. Foreign ownership injected new life into exports and into a sector that seemed doomed after the union travails of the late 20th century.
BMW’s ownership of the ubiquitous Mini, Nissan in the North East, Tata of Jaguar Land Rover and demand from luxury brands Rolls-Royce and Bentley put a damper on UK manufacturing.
Despite all the noise generated during and after the Brexit vote, production rose to a peak of 1.7 million vehicles in 2019, according to data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). The pandemic brought it to a crashing halt.
Electric vehicle targets: A car on the production line at Nissan’s Sunderland plant. Nissan is at the forefront of the effort to persuade Labor to relax rules on electric vehicles or face a reduction in investment plans.
The great uncertainty hanging over the sector is now testing the goals of electric vehicles (EV).
The same is true in much of Europe, which is struggling with the transition to electric vehicles and the abundance of cheaper Chinese vehicles, with the trusted MG brand, now owned by China’s SAIC Motor Corporation, popular in the UK.
Transport Secretary Louise Haigh’s promise of “flexibilities” offers some hope that manufacturers can hit their targets.
But electric vehicles will account for only 18 percent of new car sales in 2024. The idea of reaching a target of 28 percent in 2025 and ending the sale of all diesel and gasoline cars by 2030 seems like a huge challenge.
Nissan is at the forefront of the effort to persuade Labor to relax rules on electric vehicles or face a reduction in investment plans.
It deserves a strong voice as it employs 30,000 people in Sunderland and across UK supply chains, and has invested £6bn in the country.
A Labor government committed to accelerating growth and closing the economic chasm between London, the South East and the rest of the country must listen.
Leaving aside questions about whether EV inputs are truly green, given the sources of some of the battery components, the economics are a nightmare.
Northvolt, the Sweden-based European battery champion, is struggling to meet production targets and is on the brink of Chapter 11.
The Government is investing alongside JLR and Nissan in fuel cell manufacturing, but it is questionable whether Western producers can meet Beijing’s challenge.
Across the Atlantic, Tesla, Rivian and other electric vehicle makers are pressuring the incoming Trump administration to maintain Biden-era subsidies.
It would be a disaster if a UK Government, committed to net zero emissions, allowed revitalized car design and manufacturing capabilities to be sacrificed in an ill-conceived timetable that can only hand the initiative over to the People’s Republic.
shame hargreaves
As a customer of do-it-yourself investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown, it’s hard not to criticize the way it steered 300,000 of us – and £1.6bn of hard-earned savings – into Neil Woodford’s failed equity fund .
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) did everything it could to force Woodford’s authorized corporate director, Link Fund Solutions, to pay up, but most clients still suffer huge losses from Woodford. And the opportunity cost of lost returns since the fund’s closure in 2019 is enormous.
Management claims firm RGL is taking the baton against Hargreaves on behalf of 5,000 investors.
But how much stronger the case would be if the FCA, which promised a full investigation when Bank of England governor Andew Bailey was in charge, had published its findings and taken regulatory action against Hargreaves.
It was no coincidence that Woodford’s funds were enthusiastically backed by the HL “wealth list” to implosion or that so many savers were left exposed to the platform’s own funds.
In a recent interview with the Financial Times, HL’s billionaire co-founder Peter Hargreaves described himself as “very f***ing pissed off” by the events, but added that “(HL) won’t do anything wrong.”
It is absurd that HL is now being allowed to sell itself to a private equity consortium led by CVC partners for £5.4bn.
Hargreaves is getting richer and richer, while ordinary savers (including this author) have been left stranded in a creek with a broken oar. Shameful.
grab space
JP Morgan has reportedly grown from its 1.1 million sq ft European headquarters in Canary Wharf.
It is seeking 1.5 million to 2 million square feet of space in the area for its growing staff of investment bankers and retail colleagues who serve the Chase brand online.
So much for Brexit, which undermines the Square Mile as a financial power.
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