The UK car industry campaigned strongly against Brexit, claiming they could face a 10% tariff which could be damaging. Brexiteers said the aim would be a tariff free agreement, as was secured. It was always likely as the EU exports so many cars to the UK and did not fancy a 10% tariff that would add £200-£300 to the price of a typical new vehicle.
The Remainers in charge of the official government then persuaded Ministers to impose a £15,000 tax on each new petrol and diesel car over a small limit, a burden 50 to 75 times higher than a 10% tariff. The industry did not complain about this body blow.
The industry signed up to the idea that they should move swiftly to shut down all their diesel and petrol car production and go over to battery vehicles. The idea they might use hybrids as a transition was soon knocked out by purists demanding all electric cars. Hybrids were anyway heavier, more complicated and dearer, needing two power systems.
These companies were big, profitable and successful. Why didn’t they do some customer research to find out just how opposed to battery vehicles a majority of car buyers were? Why didn’t highly paid managers have any understanding of the majority of their customers? Why didnt they see the obvious business risks? Why sign up to ending successful runs making popular cars early to switch to the unknown and largely unliked? Former Jaguar owners who used to replace their car with a new one regularly told the maker they did not want to buy a battery one.The company revelled in the idea of dropping people like these from their customer lists. They are still trying to find the new generation of battery Jag buyers.
The pathetic inability of industry bosses to tell the UK and EU governments they could not sell enough battery cars and they would suffer badly from a forced attempt at transition is now laying waste a once great industry. German car companies announce plant closures and redundancies. Honda has quit the UK and EU altogether. BMW is backtracking on keeping some electric Mini work at Cowley to replace the end of the petrol Mini lines. Vauxhall is slimming down. Ford no longer makes cars in the UK.
Meanwhile government Ministers tell us how much they treasure the industry whilst doubling down on the end of petrol cars which is the cause of the collapse. I wrote two short books setting out how net zero rules were out of line with consumer wishes. You cannot have a green revolution if customers wont buy green products, or if they see that these products often aren’t saving us CO 2 anyway.
March 1, 2025
As you effectively say, a gold plated shambles, presided over by fourth rate politicians of all political persuasions. All 9based on praying to the false idol of Nett Zero. If anything the zealotry has got worse since your party of losers gave birth to it.
March 1, 2025
Ruinous policies clapoed on by useless politicians. Steel, aluminium, ceramics, chemicals, oil, gas and now the motor industry. All systematically shutdown by government edict.
In the 7th pronouncement by the unelected CCC, the farmers are to reduce livestock making them enviable. Airfares are to be taxed to make them unaffordable and we are all going to be vegan. The food will be produced in laboratories as the land will be rewilded.
There is soon to be a mass exodus of any sane minded people to get away from this dystopian nightmare.
When the day of reckoning comes as it surely will we need some Nurenberg type trials to out the sick perpetrators.
March 1, 2025
Ian, don’t you think the CCC wants a form of mass exodus? In their ideal reality some would put a cap on the birth rate and celebrate a mass extinction event that wiped out mankind. That would reduce CO2 emissions.
March 1, 2025
At the same time Importing millions of foreigners to displace the natives.
Will these incomers give up their lifestyle on benefits when the money runs out. Will they take over the professional class and the working class. I think not. They will rebel because it’s their yooman rights to leech of the taxpayer. Problem is there will be no taxpayers.
March 1, 2025
That is not my experience. Immigrants come here to work – and work they do. Who do you think does the work in the NHS and in social care. Who delivers your pizza. Who picks your fruit and vegetables?
March 1, 2025
I’m out all weekend delivering leaflets for REFORM. It would appear our only salvation is to get Farage to act as our disrupter just like Trump.
The whole first world is rebelling against the failed political class. As usual we are at the vanguard but our time will come.
March 1, 2025
They are doing the UN / Globalists dirty work for them – reducing our living standards and levelling down the West. They will be delighted when we own nothing.
March 1, 2025
No, no, no. This is all defeatist language, negative energy. Our country still has a great future. But we first need to believe that, plan for it, and have the positive energy and hope and humour to make that happen!
March 1, 2025
(seriously, doom and gloom will get us no-where)
March 1, 2025
+1 4th rate? I think you’re being too kind.
March 1, 2025
Good morning.
It is incredible to believe that this nation, birthplace of the modern era, is being driven into poverty, de-industrialisation and eventual starvation.
Private Industry no longer serves the unions and the Labour Party. So it can and will be dispensed with replaced by State owned and run assets.
It will not end well.
March 1, 2025
No,its not incredible,its only too predictable-its just the historical process-rise,fall,decay,collapse.History doesn’t end!
March 1, 2025
So explain the rising from the ashes of The Russian Federation.
March 3, 2025
What are you talking about?The RF rose from the ashes of the USSR.The steppe empires rise and fall with a reshuffling of the pack-a new ruling clique or newly dominant ethnicity
-its been that way for thousands of years.
March 1, 2025
Perhaps we should not be surprised. Like other industries that have somehow survived destruction by the political class, the motor industry is foreign owned. They will not fight for its survival. The few remaining successful UK entrepreneurs get short shrift from the government and the media. Capital markets are in decline, crowded out by taxation and regulation. It’s over.
March 1, 2025
Consumers dictate what they buy and what sells.
Manufacturers have to meet their demands or starve.
March 1, 2025
Bloke:
Not in an authoritarian/Communist state. I recommend anyone who wants a laugh to watch Ronald Reagan’s joke on ordering a car in Russia.
March 2, 2025
Yes; maybe the joke of that plumber expected in the morning appointment 10 years ahead may be more reliable than one in the NHS.
March 1, 2025
Would a reason “The industry did not complain about this body blow [of]…. a £15,000 tax on each new petrol and diesel car over a small limit” be that it saw an opportunity to sell its EV products for a substantial premium over the sales prices of its ICE offerings with the prospect of consequential margin improvement?
If so, they did not reckon on the BYD Seagull.
March 1, 2025
UK car industry – (Manufacturers 20% / Supply Chain 80%)
The industry lobby group SMMT represent the manufactures; who are all international companies
March 1, 2025
Brexit should be grasped as an opportunity to create / recreate great British owned car brands the equivalent of the German. High engineering, stylish and affordable. We can do it. Instead of focusing on building Japanese cars or other foreign cars or Jags or something that only relatively few can afford. But private enterprise can’t do this alone. Needs a certain amount of government assistance. This would then had positive knock-on effects on British High Tech sector – really ramping productivity in our great country as well as high exports, high skills, high revenues to country overall. Brexiters have to get behind this to make Brexit a real success.
March 1, 2025
There’s not much point recreating Great British car brands if they’ve got to be EV and no-one will buy them.
And anyway, who’s going to stump up the money? Private enterprise is being clobbered by this Marxist Government; the Government doesn’t have any money left and neither do taxpayers, who are already paying the highest levels of tax since WW2.
March 2, 2025
Defeatist
March 1, 2025
If private business can’t do it alone, the government assistance it needs is lower tax.
March 2, 2025
Tax reduction key. But not enough. Private business has always needed government assistance from one degree to another. But in a certain context for right reasons.
So many examples from Silicon Valley to Boeing to Rail Roads where gov has helped get the show on the ground.
Basically, often, private enterprise requires government to help prepare the ground and fertiliser and then private enterprise plants the seeds and takes over.
To over-focus on just tax reduction is rather like Apple Inc relying on its Finance Director to get the company of the ground. No. Not enough. The company also needs a creative approach / R & D – not just clever financial management. (The last analogy doesn’t work perfectly but there are certain truths within the analogy that do work).
March 2, 2025
Also, the British Raj existed primarily for economic benefit to UK (and some in the Raj were in it to help the Indians to a degree too – others not).
Who paid for the Raj? The British government (for the army and civil service etc in India).
Again, the Raj, from UK’s perspective was primarily ECONOMIC. With government financing it.
And lots of other different ways government has helped private enterprise.
March 1, 2025
The WEF and its bought-and-paid-for puppeticians in the Westminster Uni-Party thought they could force EVs on us.
Drunk on power, they didn’t realise that, whilst they can pass legislation to ban the sale of petrol cars, they can’t pass legislation which will make people buy them. Most people can’t afford one and for most people living outside a city or large conurbation, they are completely impractical.
Thanks to their intransigence and the stupidity/cowardice of the car industry, we are now going to see car manufacturing disappear in the UK and thousands of jobs sacrificed on the altar of Net Zero. Still, every cloud has a silver lining and if Nissan in Sunderland goes down, it will take the Labour Party down with it.
March 1, 2025
I read that Nissan is canceling the night shift – another step in the wrong direction for UK manufacturing.
Everyone is very upset with Trump and his treatment of Zelenskyy. I didn’t enjoy watching it but I think everyone needs to raise their sights and start worrying about events elsewhere in the world.
We are in great danger, not from some Climate Armageddon but from something much more immediate called Global War. We’d better start preparing and getting ourselves on a “war footing” – not just in terms of military spending but more critically our ability to survive in terms of food, energy and the manufacture of essentials.
Global conflict hopefully will not go nuclear but we saw how disruptive Covid was. Just think about shipping routes being closed en-masse or something as simple as Taiwan chip production ceasing overnight.
So stop worrying about the how Trump is treating Ukraine and start thinking how we get through what might be coming in the next year or two. First steps Mr Starmer, a) fire Milliband b) start Fracking c) make friends with our Farmers d) Tarif cheap Chinese imports and e) start telling Britsh people to start buying “Buy British” again – in other words, anything to get us better prepared for what might well happen in the not too distant future….
March 1, 2025
Donna:
Net Zero was never intended to be a successful transition. In the case of cars the goal is to drastically reduce car ownership as well as impoverish. This is clearly why they’re continuing despite evs not selling. Nothing else makes sense.
March 1, 2025
I suppose I should have paid more attention to this emerging insanity at the time, as the car industry did.
https://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol
“What is the Kyoto Protocol?”
“… adopted on 11 December 1997 … entered into force on 16 February 2005 …” “sets binding emission reduction targets for 37 industrialized countries and economies in transition and the European Union.”
From February 2018, 13 years later, by which time we had already had over 9 years of low economic growth:
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/13-years-since-kyoto-and-the-uk-is-still-leading-the-charge-to-a-low-carbon-future
“Energy and Clean Growth Minister Claire Perry celebrates UK leadership to tackle climate change and calls for ambitious climate action to continue.”
“But it was the Kyoto Protocol that truly kickstarted international action in 2005. When world leaders signed up to the charter, it signalled a sea change. Left unchecked, climate change would ravage our natural environment and, along with it, our health and prosperity.”
March 1, 2025
Perhaps it was because of all the hype from HMG, green lobbyists and net0 zealots on this subject, before reality hit them.
Let’s face it, as well as having the most CCTV and oppressive legislation against ordinary people, the UK has exceeded other countries in the level of indoctrination pushed out by the BBC and other channels – It certainly has a huge effect but fails when people see for themselves the real truth, even though that takes a while to sink in.
Successive governments have supported the car industry for decades – God knows how much in subsidies went that way while governments since Blair have refused to add real road capacity. A sure recipe for disaster, showing how disjointed official policies have been.
HMG will certainly NOT be shedding any tears at seeing the UK motor industry collapse. For the time being they will be happy to see car imports increase to keep UK car customers happy. That is until net0 policies stop all imports by ship to reduce our overall Co2 bill.
Yes, this is one more disaster happening to the UK, but all in line with government policies.
March 1, 2025
The destruction of the car industry along with all UK manufacturing, is exactly what the fools in government want (and that includes previous governments Sir JR, whether you want us to mention them or not) They are all chasing the self-righteous, look at me, see how green we are, naivety.
We’re going to remove 0.0004% of co2 from the atmosphere aren’t we wonderful?
March 1, 2025
“BMW is backtracking” you have to ask are they giving back the £600million of Taxpayer( It is never Government ) money awarded to them for electric car production facilities in the UK?
March 1, 2025
Off topic. Did I read correctly? Are we actually paying benefits to 86000 Ukrainians who then send the money home?
March 1, 2025
Rachel has announced that she is now stealing Russian money – £2 billion odd, to give to Zelensky. She still expects a free trade deal with Trump’s USA.
So that should do for the City.
She is also diverting money intended for the Green Scam to Military spending.
She is cutting Social Security payments.
She is going to cut the cost of housing the…..immigrants in British Hotels.
Amazing – they never believed that the ‘planet’ was in danger. She does not give a damn about the long-term sick. She is going to squeeze the hotel industry.
March 1, 2025
Afraid most of the political Parties have just wanted more and more tax and control for the past two or three decades, tax, spend, borrow, legislate, and redistribute seems have been the mantra.
The golden egg if one ever existed has got smaller and will soon disappear, certainly many peoples work ethic seems now to have changed to one of entitlement (paid for by others).
Successive Governments seemed to think that we should all work for them and others, not ourselves and our own families.
It will all end in tears, it is just a question of time, unless there are some drastic changes!
March 1, 2025
With energy prices at up-to 4 times those of the UK’s competing nations here in the UK and all the while you have factories elsewhere in the World why wouldn’t you leave.
Sir John, you mentioned TATA ( known to some as JLR) they have been chasing and getting Taxpayer( not Government ) handouts for years in their home protected market they get to make all the the petrol and diesel vehicles they need and can export, coal fired power and as with the rest of the World no punitive punishment Laws to stop them.
Its the same for many other car manufacturers – latest BMW PR “The new MINI Countryman will roll off the production line at the BMW Group plant in Leipzig starting at the end of this year”
The question they all asked and answered themselves is why would we pay up to 4 times the price for energy and accept punitive punishment Laws when we don’t have to.
March 1, 2025
If there was madness in the car industry in expressing a desire to remain, remember the car industry is not British. When a high proportion of Brits failed to see the advantage of Brexit, it is not surprising that this foreign owned entity lobbied for what it saw as financial advangage. I doubt Morgan voted remain.
Irrespective of car industry lobbying, politicians of all colours have set out to constructively destroy the car industry ever since Brexit. The real problem lies in Westminster, a worm bucket of incompetence.
March 1, 2025
Also, increasing our Defence Spending, considerably, doesn’t have to be a scary thing (in terms of budgeting). As if we keep the development of the weapons in-house (with some collaboration with allies – where we all benefit from the development of these weapons) then that money is going to get circulated back into the economy. And the development of military equipment (dome) could indirectly and directly help the non-military high tech industry too here in the UK.
March 1, 2025
Off topic, just look at this nonsense from the current EU foreign minister, who is one of 1.37 million Estonians:
https://www.politico.eu/article/volodymyr-zelenskyy-donald-trump-jd-vance-oval-office-white-house-us-ukraine-war-russia/
“European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said: “Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge.””
It was the first holder of that position who helped to stir up conflict in Ukraine rather that calming things down:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2025/01/01/changing-the-curriculum/#comment-1492041
March 1, 2025
One of the (handbag) dogs of war!
March 1, 2025
We need to claw our way back to the Rational Age, where everybody was prepared to put their point of view backed up by reasoned arguments, and to be persuaded to change their opinion in the face of now rational arguments or ones that they had not factored in.
At present reality does not impose itself in the dystopian world of the powerful.
It’s very depressing. But we must keep soldiering on because although we can’t convince them, the arguments filter out and convince many ‘ordinary people’ like myself.
We literally gasped when Starmer claimed we enjoyed free speech. Does he believe this to be true? He acknowledged in the Oval Office that Britain could not take on Russia by itself. Yet this morning he aligns us with the man expelled from the White House yesterday who claims he has fought Russia on his own for 3 years.
The reality check is going to be brutal.
March 1, 2025
You walk into the Bar and sit in your usual place. You look for him but your big buddy isn’t in tonight, although the loud guy with the broken nose is here with his mates. He walks over and demands that you sit elsewhere. You look around the Bar but all the other regulars are avoiding your gaze. You think briefly about telling him where to go but then realise that you stopped going to the gym many years ago and never actually took that self defence class you’ve often boasted of.
So you get up and quitely move. Later (when he’s left and you’ve had a few more beers) you tell the barman that he was lucky that he didn’t start anything or you’d have flattened him. He nods in agreement, not looking at you. You hear later that your buddy has moved away and you begin to realise that things might not be the quite same in future.
March 1, 2025
The DEI revolution infected companies as well as government and only now are the virtue-signalling bosses beginning to realise the error of their ways, and beginning to think that earning money for their shareholders should be the top priority.
March 1, 2025
I worked in the motor industry in the UK for 42 years. I was and am shocked that the manufacturers tamely accepted the government forcing targets on them for the sale of EVs. EVs will turn out to be as big a disaster as the 1990s Labour Government’s actions in trying to force people into diesels. Many followed the Government’s advice only to discover that diesels are more polluting than petrol engines.
Labour seemed determined to destroy any UK industry to save CO2, even though it is not a problem at all.
We need a Trump style DOGE over here, but it will never happen under Labour. Are the Conservatives or the Reform Parties bold enough not to just talk about it, but to do it?
March 1, 2025
The e-Fuels revolution of transportation is starting. EVs and Hybrids are starting to be seen as environmentally damaging technologies because of poisonous lithium batteries. e-Fuels produced with abundant power supply by small nuclear reactors provide true Net Zero without the devastating environmental impact of lithium batteries. F1 is to use e-Fuels from 2026, the change is coming, is the UK going to lead on e-Fuels? Fingers crossed 🙂
March 2, 2025
Fossil Petrol and Diesel will eventually be a thing of the past, but it’s definitely NOT “the end of the road” for the Internal Combustion Engines (ICE). If anything it will soon be “the end of the road” for EVs and Hybrid cars powered by inefficient and polluting Lithium batteries.
Although not widely publicised Rolls-Royce and Westinghouse are developing Small Modular Reactors (SMR) technology for Hydrogen production, which will be used to create synthetic fuels (e-Fuels), synthetic Petrol and Diesel in huge reliable quantities at exceptionally low cost. e-Fuels are carbon neutral and do not damage and pollute the environment like Lithium batteries, this new development is going to put into question unreliable and polluting power systems like solar panels, wind turbines and heat pumps because of the environmental safety, low cost, reliability, power density and ease of use that will be provided.
An SMR is currently under construction in Teeside in the UK, other locations are being agreed on, these are being developed with European support using Westinghouse’s AP300 SMR design.
Several European countries like France, Italy, Poland, Romania, Czechia, Estonia have SMRs under construction while other European countries are providing research, scientific and development support.
SMRs that are currently in development in the UK, France and Italy will be producing e-Fuels by 2030.
Here is one of several links available:
https://namrc.co.uk/industry/westinghouse-teesside-smr/