ONE of the world’s biggest carmakers, Stellantis, has called on the Tory government to renegotiate part of the Brexit deal or risk losing parts of its car industry.
Stellantis owns Vauxhall, Peugeot, Citroen and Fiat, and has committed to making electric cars in the UK, but says that is under threat, because it can no longer meet Brexit trade rules on where parts are sourced.
The government is ‘determined’ that the UK will remain competitive in car manufacturing, a spokesperson said. Stellantis says: ‘If the cost of electric vehicle manufacturing in the UK becomes uncompetitive and unsustainable, operations will close.’
Stellantis calls on the government to come to an agreement with the EU to keep the rules as they are until 2027, and it also wants arrangements for manufacturing parts in Serbia and Morocco to be reviewed.
Nissan also warns costs must fall to make new electric cars in UK. Just two years ago, the world’s fourth biggest car maker said the future of its Ellesmere Port and Luton plants was secure.
But now Stellantis has asked the UK government to renegotiate part of the Brexit deal amid a ‘threat to our export business and the sustainability of our UK manufacturing operations’.
In a submission to a House of Commons inquiry into electric car production, the firm said its UK investments were based on meeting the strict terms of the post-Brexit free trade deal. These rules state that from next year, 45% of the value of the electric car should originate in the UK or EU to qualify for trade without tariffs, later rising to 65%.
Stellantis said it was ‘now unable to meet these rules of origin’ after the surge in raw materials costs during the pandemic and energy crisis.
A government spokesperson said that Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch ‘has raised this with the EU’. Badenoch, who is meeting with Stellantis executives today, ‘is determined to ensure the UK remains one of the best locations in the world for automotive manufacturing, especially as we transition to electric vehicles,’ the spokesperson said.
Labour’s shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said yesterday that manufacturers had been let down by a ‘government in chaos’.
He said that ‘the jewel in the crown of British manufacturing is at risk without urgent action from the government,’ promising that Labour ‘will work with industry to build the gigafactories we need’.
Andy Palmer, a former chief operating officer at Nissan and chairman of the battery start-ups Inobat and Ionetic, told the BBC ‘we are running out of time’ to get battery manufacturing in the UK.
‘It’s basically impossible to meet those (EU) local content rules unless you’re sourcing your battery from a plant in the UK or in the EU,’ he told Radio 4’s Today programme.
He added that the cost of failure was clear: ‘It’s 800,000 jobs lost in the UK, which is basically those jobs associated with the car industry.’
David Bailey, professor of business economics at the Birmingham Business School, agreed, saying: ‘If we don’t make batteries at scale in the UK, we won’t have a mass car industry.’
Meanwhile, Unite has stated that taking energy into public ownership would end the ‘scandal of energy company profiteering’.
Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham is to urge Starmer to reconsider Labour policy, but Starmer is not listening.
Unite Investigates’ report, ‘Renationalising Energy – costs and savings’ considers how a publicly run energy network could use the massive profits of Britain’s energy giants to reduce household bills and fund the transition to a green future with secure jobs.
Unite Investigates’ report is the first to determine the potential costs and savings of taking public control of the entire UK energy network – including North Sea oil and gas production, electricity generation, transmission and distribution networks, and supply companies.
Sharon Graham, Unite General Secretary, said: ‘It’s time to end the scandal of our energy system which allows profiteers to pocket billions while workers and communities are left in the cold.’
Unite must organise the immediate occupation of the Stellantis plants in the UK, and demand that the TUC take indefinite general strike action to bring down the Tories and see that these plants are expropriated and become part of a UK nationalised and planned economy. As Unite says: ‘It’s time to pull the plug on the energy profiteers.’ They must be nationalised at once!
