By Paul Homewood
Honda has confirmed it will close its Swindon car plant in 2021, with the loss of about 3,500 jobs.
The Japanese company builds 160,000 Honda Civics a year in Swindon, its only car factory in the EU.
Honda said the move was due to global changes in the car industry and the need to launch electric vehicles, and it had nothing to do with Brexit.
Business Secretary Greg Clark said the decision was "devastating" for Swindon and the UK.
A fall in demand for diesel cars and tougher emissions regulations have shaken up the car industry.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47287386
The simple fact is that there are two reasons behind this decision:
- The phasing out of tariffs on imports to the EU from Japan over the next seven years.
- The uncertainty surrounding diesel and petrol sales
The writing has been on the wall for some time in fact, with European sales of both Civics and all Honda models declining sharply since 2008, and now make up less than 3% of global sales. As a result, Swindon has had one of its two production lines shut for several years now.
http://carsalesbase.com/car-sales-comparison/#
With threats to ban diesels, and eventually petrol engined cars as well, the long term outlook for the Civic, and consequently Swindon, was always under threat.
Meanwhile, the new Honda EV, the Urban, will be made in China and Japan where Honda already plans to produce at scale.
Significantly, Honda have also announced that it would also cease making Civic at its factory in Turkey, which would be closed.
This is a sign of things to come, as Europe moves to sidelining diesel and petrol cars. Increasingly their EV replacements are likely to be built in Asia.
from Climate Change Skeptic Blogs via hj on Inoreader http://bit.ly/2NcRPhW
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