Government Support For UK Auto Really Is Needed – It Won’t Be A ‘Bailout’.

Even before Covid-19 hit, the UK auto industry was experiencing a ‘perfect storm’ in terms of the shift away from diesels, a downturn in the Chinese market and Brexit uncertainty slowing the economy, impacting in turn on sales and production.
 
Covid-19 has brought ‘Perfect Storm Part 2’, with supply chains disrupted, assembly closed down and car dealers shut. The economic damage from the virus will likely mean a 20% hit to car sales globally this year. That’s pretty devastating for an auto industry already beset by challenges and having to invest heavily in new technologies. The SMMT had originally forecast a 200,000 unit hit to UK car output as a result of the virus, but the actual impact could easily be double that.
 
This would be hugely damaging to a strategically important industry. On the manufacturing side, the auto ndustry employs some 168,000 people directly and that number again in sectors linked to it. The industry’s annual turnover is valued at £82bn a year, and ...