Slow demise of the UK specialist car manufacturer

[Michael Richardson]

I read today that another UK niche market producer,Lotus, is destined to leave our shores,following the purchase of Proton (Malaysian) by a Chinese group who already own Volvo and the UK taxi builder.Lotus has had a very chequered life,just as Jensen,and others (except Morgan ?) It seems that they will want to expand the range,even into SUV/4X4 etc,just as everyone else does....4 door Porches etc,etc,etc..It seems that production could move away. I wonder if,say,production of Jag/LR followed the same model,what would we be left with . Any thoughts?

[DAVID]

I strongly suspect that this is the best thing that could happen to Lotus, what Geely did with Volvo and LTC was supply much needed investment and left them alone to do "what they do best", there is also an understanding that a brand's national roots are essential to the value of the brand.
I would make a bet that Lotus will continue to design, engineer and produce cars in the UK with enough investment to do it properly, and I would not be surprised to find them with an additional factory in China producing market specific models (electric SUVs for example).
I spent twelve years working for Volvo, and felt first hand the slow decline in the Ford era, Geely ownership transformed the company giving it cash and freedom, Volvo is now stronger than it has ever been, and still Swedish to the core. I now work for Geely and have had more than a passing involvement with LTC, another brand that has rediscovered its mojo, new products, new factory and a vastly increased workforce, all done with smart investment from abroad, why the UK is incapable of investing in its own manufacturing industry I do not know !!! but having met Li Shufu a couple of times I am convinced that Lotus is in good hands and will not evaporate and reappear as a Chinese badging exercise.

Cheers

David

[rolando38]

let's hope a better future than Rover (er sorry: Roewe...) with SAIC

UK can still be proud of RR and Bentley, although not owned by home capital (but who is, nowdays, with cross capitalizations and shareholders) , most operations are still UK based AFAIK

[colin7673]

why the UK is incapable of investing in its own manufacturing industry I do not know !!!

So some reason, the powers that be, do not want manufacturing in this country, it all seem to be geared up for IT, Labour talk about investment for jobs at the last election but what jobs? The Tories never said anything about this, when the old school engineers have died and we can make or repair anything in the country what will we do then?

When you think that 85% or there about, of all inventions, came from this country over the years this country is now and will be forever in a sorry state of affairs

[AH1951]

.

[Chris_R]

it all seem to be geared up for IT,

Not even that. Many many companies are outsourcing their IT to India. One of the top UK food retailers setup a subsidiary branch in Bangalore and sent all the computer programming jobs over there. I think over a thousand jobs went that way. Skilled jobs. Just from that one company. All their PC support comes from India.
One of the major mobile telecoms companies does not employ any IT staff at all, they are all outsourced to companies like Tata Consulting and sit in an office in Bangalore or Chennai.
You may recall a huge fiasco a few years back with one of the major UK banks that couldn't pay credits into bank accounts. Took them over a week to get payments back on track and in the meantime pensioners weren't receiving their pensions, people who relied on benefits weren't receiving their benefits, people literally had no money to buy their kids school lunches or pay rents, payments for debt like credit cards weren't going through meaning that people missed their payment deadlines and went into arrears, others went into unauthorised overdrafts because an expected salary payment hadn't come through. Chaos. Guess where their computer operations are run from? Yep. You guessed right and it's not in the UK.
And so it goes on, company after company right across the country and right across all sectors.

[DAVID]

I think you're right, but it feels like there is a fundamental attitude problem that does not bode well for the future of the UK, in Germany (and China) for example, engineering is considered a worthy and highly regarded profession, and making things and selling them a valid activity, however I do get the feeling that now in the UK engineering and manufacturing is considered a bit grubby, while all the "smart" money is in the banking racket (moving other peoples money around and deftly creaming some off the top).
We used to be considered one of the premier manufacturing countries in the world, but that was before we started to believe that getting our hands dirty was beneath us, now we have a "service economy" but have to outsource the services because we cant compete.
Cheers
David

[rolando38]

CaptureX.JPG (132.96 KiB) Viewed 4294 times

[rolando38]

probably too many people discouraged to have "the knack"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8vHhgh6oM0

[Chris_R]

It's actually also not all doom and gloom. There is a small engineering company near to me who make quality machined parts of various types. One of the things they make is a small part machined from a solid piece of aluminium, machining accuracy being measured in microns so small that a computer and a laser beam is needed to check the tolerances and essential for rotating the direction of the turbine and they export these to China for use in their wind electricity generating turbines. China is the world leader in wind turbines installing new, yes additional new ones at the rate of 2 per hour! Almost 50 per day and in each one of those are some parts from this small engineering company here in South West London in the UK.

[colin7673]

probably too many people discouraged to have "the knack"

Problem as well because of ' Reality TV' everybody wants to be 'just famous' but just don't want to do the work or do not inspire for anything

Look at Charles Babbage, Alexander Fleming and Dr Hans von Ohain and Frank Whittle where would we be now if they had the same attitude...

God help us.

[AH1951]

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[joesparks]

Blimey Chris , a tolerance of microns I have to be bang on !!!
Joe

[Richie]

Well, as Ian Dury once said, we do have reasons to be cheerful...

to start with cars...from the SMMT:

Car production is at highest for 17 years and seems well on track to break the production record set in 1972.
British car manufacturing enjoyed its best month in 17 years in March fuelled by demand for vehicles from abroad.

The number of cars to roll off UK production lines rose by 7.3% last month compared with a year earlier, to 170,691 - the highest number since March 2000.
Of these, 130,838 were exported, up 10.6% compared with the previous month. Demand fell at home, however, with the number of cars built for the UK market down 2.2% at 39,853, according to the figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

A strong March also helped to drive a 17-year quarterly high for UK production in the first three months of 2017, with 471,695 cars built, up 7.6%

“UK car manufacturing is accelerating thanks to billions of pounds of investment committed over the past few years,” said Mike Hawes, SMMT’s chief executive. He warned, however, that the current momentum could be undermined should the government fail to negotiate a free trade deal between Britain and the EU during Brexit talks. “Much of our output goes to Europe and it’s vital we maintain free trade between the UK and EU or we risk destroying this success story,” he said.

A total of 1.7m cars were produced in Britain in 2016, and the SMMT believes the number could surpass 2m by 2020, breaking the previous record of 1.92m set in 1972.

And manufacturing generally...from the ONS:

Despite the decline since the 1970s, when manufacturing contributed 25% of UK GDP, the UK is currently the ninth largest manufacturing nation in the world.

Overall, the UK’s industrial sector has increased by 1.4% a year since 1948, according to a recent report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The ONS attributes the sustained growth to a better quality; more skilled workforce; a shift in production from low to high productivity goods; improvements in automation and technology; increased investment in R&D, and a more integrated global economy.

It would appear therefore that manufacturing output has actually increased steadily since 1948. Because the service sector has however grown much faster the proportion of GDP attributable to manufacturing has fallen.

[colin7673]

There's the first mistake Richie

''British car manufacturing''

The British do not have a Car Manufacturing Industry, but there is Car Manufacturing Industry in Britain.

There is a difference

Britain may have same small low volume car makers, but not enough to qualify as an Industry

And if Europe put any tariffs on export from our Great Island. in the main they will only be hurting their own Industries