FairCharge’s Post

Transcript

To start with, some breaking news this afternoon as that is that still Lantis, the owner of Vauxhall as Alliance plans to shut its van making factory in Luton, putting more than 1100 jobs at risk. The company is now in consultation with unions and employees over the proposals which will also seed invest ��50 million into its Ellesmere Port factory. It comes as the Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds is expected to announce a consultation on possible policy changes to switch to electric vehicles following a meeting with. Industry leaders today, Well, let's bring in Andy Palmer, who previously ran the Luton plant when it was producing vans for Nissan. He's now or, and I'm sorry, what was the former chief executive of Aston Martin 2? Andy, very good afternoon to you. This is a bitter, bitter blow. It's dreadful news. Obviously Luton is a famous side for, for producing vans. As you said, I was at Nissan actually, but we consigned manufacturing of our vans to the Luton plant. So I've had a long association with the plants and it's, it's dreadful to hear that it might, it might, might be closed. So very, very bad news and bad news, you know, the, the city well, bad news for Luton, you know, vans have been made. In that city for decades and decades and decades. Yes, I mean the, the industry coined the term of the Luton van. It's, it's very closely associated with what it does. And you know, the, the plant has been called into question many, many times over that period. I know for the last 25 years there's always been that question mark over can you make it work. And it very much, very much relied upon for example, bringing together a Vauxhall with Renault or late laterally with still Lantus to get the volumes up. But but it's unfortunate that it seems that that road has come to an end and what is at play here? What's the thought process? What are Vauxhall effectively thinking it? You know, there's been a lot of talk about EV's having there and effectively a lack of government help. Look, look. For sure, the regulations around introductions of EV's, the mandate that a certain proportion of your volume has to be EV as we move forward, 22% this year, 28% next year, that undoubtedly plays into it. But we have to put that into context. Luton exports something like 75% of its production. So it's not related to to that, that that regulation. At the moment, Luton doesn't produce any. Any TV's so it's not directly it's easy the the manufacturers find it convenient to blame one particular thing. But here in fact is more to do I think with the European car industry the problems that places like Germany are having the the pressure on the automaker in general, not just related to EV's and Angela get on to that in a second if I can, but let's talk about Ellesmere Port because the idea is I think from reading. At the press release this afternoon, it is that they are gonna try and shift some of these jobs, at least with a bit of more extra investment into the plants in the north. Yes, and that's, that's, that's obviously welcome news. It's not welcome news for the guys in Luton, but it's welcome news that the Vauxhall isn't going away, that it's doubling down and it's making those commitments to to EV as well, which is really important as we move forward. So there's a little bit bittersweet here and it's, you know, it's good news, I guess for for Ellesmere Port, but bad news for Luton. Let's talk about the wider car industry. You, you touched upon it there, didn't you, about what's happening not just here in the UK, but across Europe, particularly the powerhouse of Germany, but a lot of people thinking that essentially the calm manufacturing businesses or business in Europe is, is effectively falling apart. It, it does feel like that, doesn't it? What's happening is, is probably the biggest change in the industry since the car industry began. As we move from petrol and diesel across to EV, some of those manufacturers have been slowed, slowed to make that change, meaning they've got big capital investment programs to, to catch up. But it's also let in, if I may, the, the, the, the Chinese manufacturers. So suddenly you've got this very, very competitive. That's not incentivized. Industry that is eating the lunch of the traditional players, so in a market that was already tough. In a market which was transitioning to EV, you've now got these extra players making it more difficult and it's just that much harder to make money. So that's the wider issue. You also see, for example, in Germany, the removal of the incentives for customers to buy cars at a moment, particularly EV, at a moment when when you know basically you've got cost of living issues. So it does feel like a lot of black Swans are all coming together. Or almost a flurry of of of of of them coming together a flock of black Swans, if I may and and basically the industry suffering. OK Andy, I really appreciate your time this afternoon. Difficult day for those workers in Luton anti Palmer there. Thank you very much indeed.