2023-05-17 12:34:49
The car manufacturer Stellantis has sounded the alarm in the British government: If the trade agreement concluded with the European Union following Brexit is not immediately renegotiated, there is a risk of factories being closed and thousands of jobs being lost, said the owner of the car brands Opel, Vauxhall and Peugeot , Citroen and Fiat before a House of Commons committee on Wednesday examining the prospects for Britain’s electric vehicle industry.
Stellantis has urged the government to agree with the EU to extend current auto parts sourcing rules by three years, to 2027.
Stellantis emphasized that as part of the current agreement, tariffs will be imposed on the carmaker’s exports of electric vehicles to Europe from next year, when stricter post-Brexit rules come into force. “When the cost of manufacturing electric vehicles in the UK becomes uncompetitive and unsustainable, factories will close,” Stellantis warned. “Manufacturers will not continue to invest and will (instead) move their manufacturing operations outside of the UK, as has been the case with previously established UK manufacturers such as Ford and Mini.”
According to the trade deal agreed when Britain left the Union, 45 percent of the value of an electric vehicle must come from the UK or the EU from next year to avoid tariffs.
To save its car industry, Britain not only needs to extend the timeline of the deal with the EU, but also urgently encourage battery makers and other car parts suppliers to settle in the country, former Nissan boss Andy Palmer told BBC radio. “The cost of failure is clear. There are 800,000 jobs in the UK, which are basically jobs related to the car industry,” said Palmer, who is chief of European battery maker InoBat. “If there is no battery capacity in the UK, these automakers will migrate to mainland Europe.”
British Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt also warned at an event hosted by the British Chamber of Commerce that the country must have capacity to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles (EV). “Watch this area because we are very focused on making sure the UK has electric vehicles and manufacturing capacity,” he said.
The British car trading group Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said in its statement that the current production capacities in the EU and Great Britain do not make it possible to cover the need for batteries and battery parts.
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