Car production was down 9.1% in 2018 due to numerous factors, including Brexit, lack of demand for diesel and strict emissions laws causing delays.
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) was the hardest hit, with a 15% drop in production, with just under 450,000 cars leaving the factory, down from the 530,000 that left in 2017.
Brexit and the car industry
Brexit has been a cause of uncertainty for British car makers, with them closing plants, slowing down production, or in the case of JLR, suspending it completely for two weeks in their Solihull plant.
Back in July the CEO of JLR, Ralf Speth, said that a no-deal Brexit would be disastrous for car makers as they rely on a “free, frictionless, seamless logistics” system. One part missing from the production line could cost them as much as £60 million a day, he went on to warn, speaking of the implications that Brexit could have on their company.
“We, and our partners in the supply chain face an unpredictable future if the Brexit negotiations do not maintain free and frictionless trade with the EU and unrestricted access to the single market,” Mr Speth said.
“We urgently need greater certainty to continue to invest heavily in the UK and safeguard our suppliers, customers and 40,000 British-based employees.
A bad Brexit deal would cost Jaguar Land Rover more than £1.2bn profit each year. As a result, we would have to drastically adjust our spending profile. We have spent around £50bn in the UK in the past five years, with plans for a further £80bn in the next five.”
Demonisation of diesel
Thanks to the lack of incentive from the government to remove diesel cars, the backlash from consumers against diesel cars has risen drastically, with the market share for diesel shrinking to under a third last year compared with over 40% the previous year.
Industry experts have commented on the U-turn by Nissan to move production of its X-Trail from Sunderland to Japan as not as a marker on Brexit, but instead the heavy regulations on diesel that are being brought in. Michael Gove’s promise to wipe all petrol and diesel cars off the roads by 2040 has further discredited diesel cars.
Labour’s eagerness in the early 2000’s to incentivise diesel has unfortunately had a much larger backlash than anyone could’ve ever anticipated. With the revelation back in 2015 over VW’s dieselgate scandal the industry was thrown into a state of confusion and even now is still working on a plan to recoup losses. The promise of lessening the CO2, higher MPG, less time between fills and reduced exhaust emissions. After the discovery of the damage that NOx had on humans, and the dangerous particulates that were being emitted into the atmosphere, most governments went down the electric car route, promising efficiency and zero emissions. The small incentives they did offer were only accessible by those with more money, and the average Joe who had bought a diesel with the previous incentives couldn’t afford the new electric cars and their charging. Those who can afford an electric car are reaping the benefits, but with the government now reducing grants and lowering incentives, it’s up to the car manufacturers to make affordable, practical and long range EVs.
Toyota has shunned electric, preferring instead to use hydrogen, where they have got it to the point that they have to create mechanisms to slow down the cars as they are too fast for everyday driving. Hydrogen is also cleaner to produce, and the emissions can benefit the environment. The main issue with hydrogen is safe storage, as it is very reactive to the environment.
Some of the reasons for shunning electric in the UK include the strain on the National Grid, which is powered by fossil fuels, and therefore any significant increase in pressure will just burn more fossil fuels and almost negate the effect of introducing electric as the predominant fuel.
Strict emissions laws
In a bid to reduce excess pollution in crowded city centres, local councils have increased the enforcement of city centre driving to the point that it has affected jobs. Industry experts attribute some of the job cuts in JLR, Nissan et al to the strict and tight regulations.
In April, there will be a ULEZ (Ultra Low Emission Zone) in place in central London meaning that any car that doesn’t meet the standards will have to pay £12.50 a day to enter and drive within the limit.
On top of this, some cities are now introducing another charge for every parking space at an office that isn’t an EV space to discourage people from driving to work as the company will have to foot the bill.
It seems that we need to fully appreciate what the car industry provides to our country. It totals 4 percent of the nations total output, totalling £60.5 billion annually. If this trend continues, it will impact the whole country drastically.
What do you think of the production slump? How can the UK rescue the falling production? Let us know below
Could another factor be that people are fed up with the high price of new cars and the low trade-in values of their existing cars?
Agree with TBak. Maybe new cars should also be valued by Webuyanycar
you get an even lower value from webbuyanycar.com
Wasn’t that the point let webuyany car set the price for new cars, I suppose the idea that would bring the price DOWN.
Especially Chinese toy ones!
Will they buy my meccano car lol?
meccano is french
No it isn’t a Canadian company own Meccano
Their factory is still in Calais France, Sorry didn’t remember the french had sold it in 2013
Exactly right, also why would you invest in a petrol or diesel car with the prospect of being taxed to the hilt in terms of road and fuel tax as our government clamps down on internal combustion in favour of electric vehicles, when those vehicles don’t meet our needs yet for long distance driving and are prohibitively expensive in their development stage.
Don’t underestimate the motivation of vanity. People have a need to show off their wealth by changing their cars regularly. Cosmetics, fashion, gym membership, newest cars, latest Self Monitoring And Reporting Technology phones are all down to vanity.
The discrepancy in pricing is necessary to fund the investment consortiums which own the glass palace dealership companies.
One’s Image comes to mind.
T Bak, your old car is a banger to them, they don’t really want to take it off you, costs money to deal with it for little profit. Also if it’s a very popular model like the Ford mondeo, they have hundreds of thousands to pick from so makes yours even more worthless.
Could another factor be that politicians constantly make up schemes to charge you or ban you from certain roads if your driving certain vehicles? The only uncertain thing is we dont know what vehicles are going to charged/excluded… hence we dont invest copious quantities of our hard earned in new cars.
This article slates Brexit as the first factor in the slump in the UK car market, yet the two car producers that gave hit the headlines are Jaguar Land Rover and Nissan. Both of those have predominantly large diesel engines SUV and luxury cars as their primary products. Both manufacturers have stated that the main reason for reducing or stopping output was because of the UK government’s tax policy in diesel engined cars and the announcement to ban all petrol and diesel cars by 2040 and with JLR, the downturn in trade was as much to do with reduced demand in China with their economy in reining in. There is no mention at all of other brands either in the UK market, the eu, or the wider environment, so I disappointed with the journalism here that is lazy and just seeks to paint Brexit as the main reason for this deal without properly explaining why.
I work at honda we stopped making diesels a few months ago most of our cars go to north america and we have litteraly just gone from building 700 a day to 570 a day
Up until recently JLR hardly offered a petrol engine, their sales were massively diesel oriented.
You’re absolutely right Mark. I, too, am disappointed in PetrolPrices in that it has chosen to leap onto the political bandwagon of making lazy, partisan statements blaming Brexit for every ill that presents itself. As you and others have pointed out, this is a multi-faceted issue and there are many far more influential factors at play in the car industry today than Brexit. Even Nissan admits that Brexit uncertainty had little to do with their retention of the X-Trail production in Japan. Let’s remain sensible on this Forum, please!
Here ! Here !
There’s an interesting article on page 7 of the free distribution paper in London called CityAM. It addresses this issue far more eloquently than I could. X-Trail production is going to Japan who have signed a no tariff trade deal with the EU, therefore there is no incentive to produce this vehicle in the EU any more, in fact if Brexit was the issue, production would have moved to somewhere else in the EU.
The x-trail is and was already being produced in Japan so production hasn’t relocated over there. It’s just not coming here as well.
EU pays well, trust me. If they can afford our politicians they car certainly afford the journalists as well. This is not to mention that most UK companies these days are actually owned by Germans, so I’m not surprised here.
Would you like to justify that stupid statement “most UK companies” come on list more than half!
Typical of leavers lies that we have heard continually over the last two years
I dont think it was so stupid, 100% of all volume car manufacturers are foreign owned and thus the net profits are remited to their overseas owners. The only uk owned car company left is Morgan who manufacture a few cars per year.
Jesus. Swivel eyed loon much?
I seem to recall they wanted higher taxes in France, there were riots, but we Brits do nothing, you’re so right about them blaming everything on Brexit, every opportunity they get, talk about bias media,.
Snowflake
Well that may even happen yet! I can see plenty of hints thrown about re civil unrest, and the media soon jump on that band wagon too. British people have no comradeship and no care, whatever happens will happen, but then of course it will be too late!
Chinese owned Jaguar land rover over estimated the number of vehicles they would sell in China as the middle classes there have not risen as quickly as estimated. It from the companies point of view is better off blaming Brexit, diesels etc rather than admitting they got it wrong
Since when did Indian-owned Tata Industries become Chinese? More research, laddie, more research.
Chinese own Lotus it used to be Malaysian but they sold it , Jaguar and land rover are Indian, Vauxhall are French
No it doesn’t, it clearly says that changes in emissions regs and a move away from diesel are also responsible. You come across as a blinkered Brexiter who is unable to acknowledge this decision will have negatives. Did you not read the quote from the JLR CEO? Facts, not fake news.
Bring on the BREXIT! Can’t wait! Bring down the class system! :o)
JLR’s CEO is a Kraut. It’s hardly surprising that he seeks to blame Brexit for everything, including his decisions to drop all Jaguar’s hero saloons, leaving the market clear for the products of his homeland, to concentrate on making mobile carcinogen factories, and transfer production overseas.
Why will the JIT (just in time) process be affected by Brexit? The EU will still have to trade with UK or lose a large part of their revenue and vice-versa.
Right Mark. Brexit is always quoted as first reason! I read where German car sales to China were 37% down and General Motors in America had closed 5 plants down. They don’mention that though.
Unfortunately, Brexit Economics has been ignored by too many including the Brexit press like the Sun, Express, Mail or Telegraph and their heroes Johnson & Rees Moggs, so too many Leavers have been misled. After 45 years of integration with the EU with 500 million consumers and access to seamless trade & services, you can not eject that advantage without severe damage. How could you when the continent is our massive neighbour and offers manufacturers freedoms of labour mobility, capital, trade and services without regulation barriers and tariffs. Moreover, the EU has 61 treaties across the globe which will take yrs for Brexit Island to redo.
The sell-off of the pound indicates three yrs of decline for the UK and more post-Brexit, rising import prices, rising shop bills, squeezed wages, relocated companies like Air Bus and Nissan etc., lost trade and lost economic growth. We are sinking and both May and Corbyn have failed. We need a new party.
What has any of what you just said got to do with the slump in new car sales peter?
I guess you voted remain?
Leaving the EU is not just about trade. It’s about getting back our sovereignty. Much more important and long lasting.
Because, of course, european companies would sooner go bankrupt than sell stuff to the UK? And since when has 5% of the world’s population been a ‘massive neighbour’? It’s not even 1/3 of the population of China.
You may be right Peter but its the bits you haven’t mentioned that are the important bits to many people, me for one is the EU Army I don’t want our lads officered by European officers they loose more than win, Federal /Central / European / United state of Europe Government that is unelected, how do you get rid of them, you can’t. Immigration it seems obvious that the countries on the edges of the EU, Sorry Greece, Italy, Spain, Albania, Romania and others border and customs control aren’t fit for purpose much to say our own, those from inside the EU coming here who can blame them average wages per month Poland 834 euros, Romania 565 Euros, Albania 261, UK 1466 euros, minimum wages no such thing in Denmark, Sweden, Cyprus, Italy. They want to centralise taxes for the Unite state of Europe that means centralised pay, that should mean everyone gets the same amount of Holidays, sick pay, redundancy as well, a can of Coke in the UK .75 euros in Europe up to 1.35 Euros hows that going to work. I could go on but I’m sick of hearing me but I still want to leave, they need our money and they know it.
Never a true word said Mark Linehan
More remainer nonsense! The main source of “the fossil fuel tax ” has come from the EU. Why the yellow vests in France then? The production of new cars effects the environment far more than using old cars for longer does. And Brexit… hasn’t anyone noticed…WE HAVEN’T LEFT YET!
Carry on then – ignore Nissan, Honda, Toyota, Jaguar Land Rover, General Motors, as well as Siemens, Airbus and Tesco, all the Banks moving staff, and assets, of course, its fiction, rising import prices, workers laid off, disinvestment…We cannot simply disentangle from 45 yrs in EU. The massive chaos awaiting at borders which will be horrific for business and trade and haulage nightmares and planning. Massive exports go to our 500 million European neighbours. massive imports come in. Shortages in medicines, fresh food, the planning to bring in the army, …you just ignore it its all fiction. A shrinking economy leaving the EU will not make most of us poorer …its fiction …
Dont know whether you know that although more countries have joined the EU our trade with the EU has dropped year on year since 2002 we are exporting 12% less to the EU in 2015 than prior to 2002, when if you thought about it with the EU getting larger so should our exports not be increasing? But then we have been losing our manufacturing base before the 2016 referendum, with EU grants!! Most the car industries have have been hit by a slow down in china plus the diesel problem plus green taxes which have hit sales and people being confused over the UK car tax system where you can pay up to £2000 pa for the first so many years have put people off buying new cars.
Thankyou.
All this talk about its the leaving of the EU thats to blame for all the woes we are to suffer drives me crazy.
I understand there are conserns but for goodness sake why does everything that goes wrong have to be EU related.
Indeed its never was going to be easy to untangle after so many years but thats because we have aligned our selves so much into its political state.
How ever did we survive without the EU before. Well sorry l meant to say the common market. Thats what it should have remained. A common trading area for the benifit of us all. Not a vision of political ideas to be dominated by a few and pay vast sums into the bottomless pit. The euro has not been a great thing for Greece either. Let alone Irlands ecconomy even though the Irish priminister says he wants the Irish back stop in place to secure Irlands prosperity. WHAT PROSPERITY.
Dispite the UKs problems we are doing ok and will continue to do so.
Buisnesses want aswers to plan good or bad. Its our parliments fault for all of this not the people who voted either way. We have to be open to the world for trade and not tethered to a failing organisation. Build it and they will come. Ambition as a nation is what we lack. Being scared of leaving is just pathetic. How far as a nation would we have got if people had said lm not going there the water looks too deep or that mountain looks a bit high.
You can’t even spell concerns. Lol.
Don’t talk rubbish. I remember before we went into the EU there were no troubles at borders everything went along smoothly and we were better off trading with the rest of the world and Europ and controlled our borders
“there were no troubles at borders everything went along smoothly”…..Have you ever heard of Ireland???
It’s OK don’t worry we’ll have loads of robots handing out parking tickets if you park too close to the UK border lol
I can remember as a coach driver waiting at the German border for hours and having to pay so much per passenger per kilometre and stating how many kilometres I was going to travel in Germany also being restricted to half a tank of fuel. Happy days, (not)
Don’t talk rubbish yourself, Roy.
Before we went in the Common Market we were still something of an industrial power and manufacturing wasn’t dependent, as it is now, on shifting stuff effortlessly across borders. Now we are an assembly plant for non-UK companies or, in some cases, part of an assembly plant – Airbus wings for instance. We’re attractive for our relatively cheap labour, oppressed workforce, tax breaks and – it may come as something of a surprise to you – proximity to the 500m population which is the EU.
We are no longer capable of producing iron and steel in sufficient quantities to build things such as UK ships to move our goods around – even if thought we might be able to do so we were we haven’t got the power capacity to smelt it – and we even have to go cap in hand to the US for aeroplanes for the RAF at £100m a pop. Nobody’s told us yet what we’re defending ourselves against but we’ll all merrily cough up the taxes to pay for them so don’;t be fooled when you read ‘…the government is spending £x million on this, that or the other…’ they aren’t – you are.
We’ll soon be going cap in hand to the US for their GM crops, chlorinated chickens, milk from cows which have a productive ‘life’ of two years before they are exhausted and slaughtered and hormone injected beef as we currently import 40% of our food from the EU which is unlikely to be tariff free as it is now. If you’re misguided or nostalgic enough to think that the British Commonwealth is going to be falling over itself to feed us you might spend a little time researching where Australia and New Zealand export most of their foodstuff now – or perhaps you think, misty-eyed for the past – that all those Antipodean farmers have been sitting around for the past 45 years just waiting for the call from the ‘old country’ do you?
A very large part of our GDP comes from ‘services’ (i.e.everything which is NOT goods) and the sad thing about this is that much of that can be moved to anywhere in the World – geographical integration is not needed – so our economy will inevitably go down the pan. We’re the sixth wealthiest country in the world at present (down from fifth a short while ago) with a failing health service, children going to school unfed, unwashed and in some cases not even toilet trained – and people living on the streets. What a wonderful advert for a civilised country we are, aren’t we?
There’s not much point in discussing where our labour shortfall is going to come from either, is there, as we’ve hardly made ourselves attractive to Europeans, have we?
What a wonderful rant. Consisting of socialist claptrap, educationally subnormal thinking, uneducated rubbish and economically illiterate bulls**t. Totally bereft of facts, merely socialist supposition (always inaccurate) and a total lack of maturity, experience and factual knowledge. Congratulations!
We can’t do Iron and steel work any more because of the carbon footprint that hat to go to the other side of the world and also the health and safety aspect of the job, it’s too dangerous you know PC brigade
The supply chain and international trade worked a whole lot different before we went into the EU, you can’t compare like for like.
It will be chaos due to the government trying to ignore the referendum and stay in the EU by the ‘back door’ ( May still trying of course).. This has been rumbled at a late stage and May has been left looking extremely stupid but it leaves the UK in a short term mess only. The UK did exist before the EU and the UK did manage to survive for hundreds of years whilst other countries were still grubbing up roots. Do not become a defeatist like the French in May 1940. No white flags here.
Why have you left out the Poles, Danes, Czechs, Belgians, Dutch, Norwegians, Yugoslavians, Greeks and everybody else facing the most powerful army ever assembled which crossed your border and started killing people willy-nilly? All waving a white flag, were they? Your anti-French stance seems to say much more about you than the words you’ve written.
With the benefit of hindsight to pretend that we’d have acted any differently to those countries which found themselves under the control of Nazis is laudable – we weren’t affected. Your story may have been different if you had been and you’d more than likely have died if you hadn’t.
OMG, you have done it again. The largest and, by your lights, army in 1940 was the French Army. So it’s not only politics, economics, finance and maturity you know nothing about, it’s also history. Wonderful.
Learn to read please, Martin. Did I mention ‘largest’ army?
BazP You’ll find all the countries you mentioned and others were overrun, a thing call Blitzkrieg, the enemy was on them and through them before they could mobilize, the french had time to mobilize and so did we with our brave pitiful BEF being so small and ill equipped, nothing changes does it, yet were pushed back to the sea hence Dunkirk, they at least the french Government surrendered, hence all the quaint little villages and old buildings in the towns except for that place near Limoges where the enemy killed all and burnt the town down it is still there as it was in the 1940’s, they did the same in Crete too.
I’m afraid you just have no concept of what staying in the EU would entail. The impending consequences of the Lisbon Treaty will significantly further erode member countries’ sovereignty. Do you really want to be part of a European superstate run by unelected self-interested bureaucrats where we won’t even have a veto on new EU legislation?
Frank, you only have to look at our own Parliament to see self-interest at its most rabid. Our own governments (of all political persuasions) have failed us otherwise how could you explain the mass migration here from the EU when, as non-signatories of the Schengen Agreement, we didn’t have to take any EU citizens. I do not have a problem with immigration or emigration but I believe that many who voted to leave the EU did so on the premise that we’d have control of our borders – the truth of the matter is that we already did, successive governments just didn’t want to exercise that option.
EU citizens were encouraged to come here to provide cheap labour and depress our own wages and salaries and as far as non-elected bureaucrats are concerned look no further than our own Civil Service, Quangos and NGOs and see who heads most of them. Did you vote for them? Me neither.
What really does worry me is this underlying feeling that we will somehow lose our identity if we remain part of the EU. Is it because we really haven’t got a national identity any more, or haven’t got the will to hold on to it, because it doesn’t seem to be something which is a cause of great anxiety in other EU countries. Belgians don’t feel French or Dutch and Portuguese people don’t think they’re suddenly going to become Spanish.
If we had embraced the opportunities years ago that membership of the EU afforded us, instead of continuing with the misguided belief that we’re somehow ‘better than them’ and keeping ourselves at arms-length, we may have enjoyed the European experience instead of continually harking back through rose-tinted nostalgia for a Britain that never actually existed.
Rather than have to listen to complete bores like you? GOD YES.
Until you contribute something rather than pathetic one-liners to this debate, Davey, I won’t know that you’ve extricated yourself from your ennui and possess a viewpoint which may be worthwhile discussing. I’m certain that it won’t be some regurgitated nonsense from the likes of the Mail or the Express so I really am anticipating the prospect of being dazzled by your scintillating intellect – but I won’t hold my breath.
There is no need for insults, if you are down to that point you loose your argument whether you are right or wrong, everyone is entitled to have a opinion on any subject in this country this is not a communist or socialist country where we have to think the same yet
Airbus? is that the company making wings for the A380… which Airbus have had to reduce production because of poor sales…? and they are thinking of upgrading smaller Airbus planes and scrapping the A380 altogether? Thats the A380 which only Emirates airlines bought in quantity…? and the A380 Airbus are thinking of pulling cos nobody want one? Hows that brexit related then?
Only the last line of your post makes any sense at all..
Most of your tirade is exactly that… fiction. The banks have opened small (very small) offices to deal with euro trade. London deals with international finance and I can assure you, no major country will even talk to European bankers – they are too penny-ante. For God’s sake get some financial and economic qualifications before you burst a blood vessel. The major vehicle manufacturers are paying the price for investing heavily in diesel, particularly after the Germans fiddled their emission figures and have refused to even discuss compensation for lying, and still you and your ilk buy their over-hyped, over-priced, badly built rubbish. I have at one time or another owned the majority of the so-called luxury vehicles built by Germans and not one has been any good whatsoever; and, until recently, I regularly drove over 60k miles per year. As regards disinvestment and workers laid off, the few workers that have been made redundant are, for the most part, low-skilled, low grade operatives against a background of the only european country with almost full employment. Further, our economy is not shrinking. Do try and grow up and stop reading the momentum handbook. Snowflake.
You really have taken in all the BS rhetoric of the MSM and the traitors in government.
I would explain why you are wrong on a point by point basis but I have been doing that now for over two and a half years and found that the closed minds I am trying to ease are seized solid and will not budge, rather like the engine on a friends Humber Hawk when he ran it our of oil.
With that I will save wasting my time and advise you to either do some research of your own, steering away from the MSM, or go and find a “Safe Space” and have a lie down.
Oh, of course. When we finally leave, this government will lower fuel tax! Can’t wait to take back control….
Ill have a pint of what Harolds had….
Hey Harold France fuel costs are near as dam it the same as ours now.
And VAT! which was only introduced in order to facilitate our entry into the EEC.
You are right…..just wait till we do leave!! The disastrous impact of Brexit on UK car manufacturing will make today’s difficulties seem trivial….supply chain logistics, import/export/excise bureaucracy & endless form filling, levies, etc., etc. Think of all the job losses. As Tusk said recently, those who voted to leave without having a back up plan on how to deliver it belong to a very special place!! WE WILL ALL BE WORSE OFF!
John…….Harold was being sarcastic! As in the government won’t reduce tax levels
MJK, my reply was slotted into the wrong space. I was not replying to Harold…..I was replying to Jon Ford (see above).
Yawn…. if we are incapable of filling in a form perhaps we shoudnt be running a company!
And Im still waiting for the evidence of “job losses”… no one produced any yet…
Have the project fear team sunk to trying their luck on Petrolprices.com???
You are wrong to blame the EU. It’s all about climate change which is a world wide incentive. Our government proudly announced a few weeks back that the UK is a world leader in reducing pollution. They are now considering whether they dare ban wood burning stoves and barbecues.
Yes… ban wood burning stoves and barbecues….. whilst handing over millions of pounds in green subsidies to power stations like Drax in Yorkshire to change to “biomass”, who then produce more pollution that a coal burning power station or thousands upon thousands of motor cars. So, your wood burner is killin us all is it?
Go read the interesting article in this weeks Private Eye on the subject.. dont buy it, just read the first page then put it back on the shelf.
You’ve missed the initial large vehicle excise duty that’s been lumped on brand new cars too! That’s had a negative effect of vehicle sales also.
Maybe the industry administrators should do as they are paid to do and reorganise. This is not Brexit—-Brexit is the universal excuse for either cuts or incompetence. The English car/motorcycle industries committed suicide in the 50s-60s due to useless exploitive management. They seem to be using Brexit as the excuse for a repeat.
Err workers sabotaging the cars they made coke cans put inside doors so that they rattled a mars bar sprayed over on a boot floor, motorcycles that dripped oil all over the showroom floor while the jap bikes on the other side of the showroom were oil tight…..yep blame the management……..EVERY BODY DOWN TOOLS, THE TOILET PAPER HAS RUN OUT IN CUBICLE THREE!
That’s it, perfect, flush the EU down the toilet, sounds a great idea! But only use the cheapest loo roll lol!
At a crossroads really, millions of nearly new ex PCP cars lying around, as well as a glut of three years old electric cars. What do we buy? Old cars are perfectly serviceable for teens of years, why get a new one every two or three instead of getting the most out of the old one to save the planet!
PCP?
If you use acronyms it`s helpful to give the full meaning first.
I thought that. What on Earth is PCP? Sounds a bit like some refrigerant gas to me.
Personal Contract Purchase, a method of providing new vehicles for low deposits and relatively low contract monthly outgoings for three/four years, then hand the cat back to avoid the balloon payment.
Martin – why the cat?
Typo should be car!
Exactly!, I remember years ago when your car reached 60K it was knackered, nobody would touch it when you tried to sell it, there was always a glut of cars for sale around 56k because you knew once it hit the big six zero that was it, not even a dealer would buy it, they where classed as high milers.
These days a car will reach 200k with relative ease petrol or diesel if you look after it, yet we change cars more often now than we ever did, to the point where we have customers who will purchase the same model and colour every year, why? what is the point? it’s the same car in the same colour just a new plate on it only reason I can see is it’s because we can.
MOT’s will get stiffer to clear us off the roads that will be the government “helping” out the car manufacturer & Dealer, road tax and eventually insurance will go up on your diesel to price you out of it, once this reaches a certain level where diesel and petrol cars are about level in ownership they will start on petrol’s then and price everyone into an EV or walk, they are committed to emissions so the government will do literally anything to get us all out of IC by 2040 so its not going to look like they have put 1000’s on the dole, car manufactures cutting production, back street garages with no EV training, small used car dealers who are stuck with just IC cars, there is a whole chain of people who over decades of internal combustion engines have built up skills and businesses who will no longer be relevant or currant with knowledge and training, this is a massive step forward and is going to leave a lot of people & businesses behind
+ the infrastructure is not really in place for it anyway especially in rural areas.
What happens when they lose the duty off the fuel Where will the revenue come from then. Don’t think electric cars will be road tax free forever
Electricity at a guess as that will be our “new” fuel, and everyone’s Smart meter will record every amp you use, and quite possibly your council tax as local authorities will have to upgrade the road infrastructure to cope with charging points for our new PEV’s however lets face it they haven’t even got the cash to fill in pot holes so although they will take our cash don’t expect to see charging points for many a year after, and even when you do it will be totally council and have one for every 10 cars in a layby where you only fit 2, and then it won’t work fully anyway.
What happens when the electric supply dies and you need your transport, we’ll need solar panels everywhere. It’s not like you can just fill up with a can of backup petrol as that will have gone too. On yer bike I suppose! Can you imagine the image conscious lot getting on there plush bicycle lol!
Well it sounds normal to me, as it was before the car industry came in place, there were dozens of occupations who dealt with horses, carriages, etc.. These days is rather a hobby and an expensive one, in 20-30 years to have a petrol car would be a hobby as well :DDDDD and just like with the horses – an expensive one! The only solution I can see for the petrol is to go LPG – that should live for at least another 70 years, as of the Diesels well, France and her diesel industry might go bankrupt one day unless they switch to electric/hydrogen ASAP. It’s all about the fast changes, yet don’t forget there are other countries so the industry will live in Africa or Russia for another 100 years even after we ban the last petrol car in Europe… So all these mechanics might as well move to these countries, alternatively the way it’s going with Tesla it won’t be that simple to service them individually, nor any third parties sell any spare parts – so they make a fortune when it comes to the spare parts.
Cars just got too expensive. People hanging onto cars for longer. Car depreciation is another factor when having a new car. BUT the dealers have found another way of making money. YES i bet a lot have been caught by this latest scam. You need new brakes and discs. Story of three cars and three dealers. I took my wifes ix35 in for a service was told it needed new brakes all round I said no as I had checked them before it went in was told 90% wear to rear and 70% wear to front . well I changed them myself not long ago. strange the front wear less than the back. Took the wheels off 25% wear to rear and 30% wear to front ,, rang Hyundai UK they did not want to know what the frachised dealer was doing,, Interesting,, rang the dealer,, appologies Plus Plus blamed the mechanic. Next sons car Renault Zoe story from largest dealer in Belfast needs new discs front and pads all reound , my son rang me, 20,000 miles on clock. Told him to bring it home took wheels off of it same amount of wear on his pads and discs perfect. Third car neighboroughs car across the road BMW he was told by Franchised dealer pads and discs all round costing £1500.00 he said no took it to a local mechanic , guess what discs fine and pads fine no need to change anything. SO ALL BEWARE THE LATEST FRANCHISED DEALERS SCAM
And they
re not the only ones - some of the specialist brake, tyre and exhaust fitters also try it on! Some years ago now but I was told my Volvo needed all the brakes (not discs) done at £500.
s not a difficult job for many cars.Did the job myself - including discs for £300!
It
Actually Balfour the price has come down effectively, if you look at the price of a new car say back in 2004 opposed to income and disposable income and look at the same model (if possible) now they haven’t risen in price that much at all where as wages and disposable income have and finance options are massive now plus manufactures make a lot more units now than they did so the need to shift them quicker which ends up as discounts at retail end to shift them, so in the grand scale they are cheaper to buy now. people don’t hold to cars for long periods now at all, most have them on 3 year deals from the dealer so they chop them in for another new one in 3 years time, thus keeping the cycle going, believe it or not there is more money in used cars than new as manufactures keep the price of new cars low to keep them moving.
All these cars are perfectly alright and can easily be driven for at least another 5 years but no, we change them, which puts more used cars on the market, which enables those of us who can’t afford new cars the opportunity to a “newer” car, and pushes our older car further down the chain which in the end results in all our roads, estates, car parks & waste land being over run by cars.
This is how wrong it is:
my 1st car (decades ago) a 10 year old mini which I spent more time under than in but cherished it.
My sons 1st car, a 2 year old fiesta which he treats appallingly on 4 year finance. 2nd car 2 months old now is a 6 month old Ex Demo black mondeo, on finance, if you go back to the above 2004 how many young people had such new cars for their 1st and 2nd motors they would be at least 6 years old, most new drivers around here are actually in brand new cars, when I was their age that was never heard of as they where far to expensive to buy. I think we will move back to that now with EV’s as they are NOT cheap to buy.
Kwik fit does it all the time and they say that they can’t put the car on the road because it’s not safe if you actually say NO.
Paul, Quick Fit were doing that back in the ’90’s. I was in the used car market and I took my 3 series BMW in to QF for an MOT and they failed it on, among other minor things, exhaust and brakes, pads and discs. They didn’t have the power to ‘keep’ the car then and as it still had a current MOT certificate for a couple of weeks, I took it to another MOT test centre who passed it, with no comments or recommendations. I went back to QF and showed them and I got my test charge refunded and an apology and threatened them with Trading Standards and the local paper. Doubt it did much good but it made me feel better. Never use these places as all they want is to pressurise you into buying tyres, exhausts and brakes. I use a small-ish privately owned test centre and I trust them implicitly.
Why is this country inflicting such an enormous act of self harm on its car industry? Those who still support Brexit will attempt to come up with other excuses as to why our car industry is in peril, but the reality is that Brexit is creating a serious additional challenge that will tip the balance so that the global car industry will slowly but surely see the UK as less and less attractive than markets that have access to the EU and now have a trade deal with Japan – which we are now walking away from. Car industry leaders have no political axe to grind, yet Brexit supporters claim they are all biased Remainers. In reality they simply understand the facts of their industry and it is for this reason they are so clear that Brexit will be a disaster for their industry.
Go hydrogen.you know it makes sense
But you ignore the large amount of electricity required to produce hydrogen. We are on the brink meeting demand for electricity during the winter as it is, produce large quantities of hydrogen and the light s go out….
Better build some more power stations and new distribution networks pretty quick ‘cos the EV “answer to all our problems” will also consume a lot of power!
The government has treated the motorist as a cash cow for years they make billions in tax from us , the only thing we are worried about is how much more they are going to screw us for. It is strange that how every time they make it better for us it ends up costing us more and making more for them.
Buying British made cars like we have always said in the past and only British with incentives backed by this government . After all you don’t buy foreign houses do we
Yes actually. The materials used to build a house in this country mostly come from abroad!
I knew before I even read the article that the first comment would be from someone outraged by the thought that Brexit had been used as a reason. Brexiteers are turning out just to be really angry people, incensed beyond logic that someone might be attacking their point of view. This is hardly lazy journalism, maybe it’s lazy reading by some of the commenters? It categorically states in the article that Nissan have made it clear that it nothing to do with Brexit, yet you’ve still categorically stated that this article was written with bias and that Nissan has been portrayed incorrectly. It does state that Brexit has created uncertainty and also planning for shutdowns, I think you’d have to be living under a rock or just be so completely blinkered to your own agenda to not have seen this is the case. It hasn’t stated that the Brexit itself has reduced production yet, or that it’s the number one reason, it’s the just the potential that it will have and that manufacturers are having to respond to it’s threat. There are two further sections on other reasons, or maybe you didn’t read that far because you were so angry.
And Brexit… we have noticed…WE HAVEN’T LEFT YET!
We haven’t left yet, it’s already a complete mess, there’s been no agreement of a plan yet of how to leave by the Brexit campaigners, politicians, or public, and to have invoked Article 50 without even any simple agreement of that future direction was the most damaging thing this country has ever done economically and for the population socially – just to satisfy a few vocal right wing idiots or some folk with more money than sense!! I would have gone along with leaving if something sensible had actually been done, but it hasn’t.
Cut out the World War or Empire bulls**t, it’s completely irrelevant, get into the real present world, actually understand the complexities of WTO, then come back to me and tell me the plan rather than some churned out tagline such as “Leave means leave”. Until that moment, you can kiss the UK automotive trade and other industries and services good-bye even faster than any decline it may have already been on.
“Brexiteers ….just really angry people…….incensed beyond logic” I would suggest that it maybe you that is highly emotionally charged with regards to the issue of Brexit.
The first commentator simply stated that the FIRST reason given was Brexit, with the headline grabbing quote in red; ‘Back in July the CEO of JLR, Ralf Speth, said that a no-deal Brexit would be disastrous’
Generally, in any form of reasoning, the strongest point is given first, followed by others of ever decreasing influence. For instance in a divorce, I think if infidelity was a factor, that would be stated as a reason before, ‘always leaving the toilet seat up’ .
So by inference, putting Brexit first, I would suggest, at a psychological level as a minimum gives the impression it is the main factor for the decline in the motor industry.
The reality, in my humble opinion, is more probably due to the ever increasing taxation of the diesel vehicle along with growing usage restrictions in cities. The talk of also banning all petrol vehicles by 2040 is also influencing motorists and I believe people have just decided to hang on to their current cars for a year or two longer, with the expectation or at least hope the price and efficiency of all-electric vehicles will significantly improve over the relative short term.
Well said Gavin! The root cause of the problem, I think, is that at the time of the referendum voters did not have enough information to decide which way to vote. They based their votes on misinformation spread by the tabloid press and Messrs Farage, Boris, et al, so the result of the referendum was basically a triumph of narrow-mindedness and xenophobia over common financial sense. I am not a huge fan of the EU – it can be a sinister, exploitative organisation (look what it did to Greece). But we were not in the same dire straits as Greece. Economically, we were as strong or stronger than the top EU nations at the time of the referendum. British businesses and all respected economics experts saw the folly of leaving Europe. We were doing very well thank you, but we decided to leave not realising the consequences. Why??? What happened to “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”?
Im fed up of “leavers” didnt know what they were voting for”. Let me clear this up. I voted simply to leave.. to escape the clutches of the EU.
Now is that simple enough for you?
Unlike you, I read the pamphlet that the government spent over £9 million on, trying to convince us to stay.
It had the opposite effect, or it would have, if I had not been dealing with the EEC/EU since the 70’s and knew what a dictatorial and corrupt regime it is already.
I also watched ALL the broadcasts, particularly the one by the then PM, from Chatham House.
In it he spelled out EXACTLY what leaving would entail.
It is the likes of you who did not do your research and therefore voted without knowing what it was all about.
Well gavin, I voted to leave because I became sick of all these silly rules put on us, 3 world sh#te holes being allowed in to Europe, Asian countries too want in, Turkey isn’t in Europe. It’s in asia so every man and his dog can float in unrestricted and were do you think he will head? That’s right, all the way to our door. Once we leave it will fall flat on its face as every one else will want out. The few little men jumping up an down in Brussels are crying as their gravy train is about to crash, all their scams should be exposed, and punishment handed out. Never signed off legally ever. Were is our money going gavin? Into the pockets of those who are not being democratic now by trying to deal rail a vote of the people.
It seems it’s ok to pollute the atmosphere if you’re prepared to pay the premiums required so the rich guy in the diesel guzzler is ok but not the hard up guy who relies on his car for work and can’t afford to swap it for an electric car.
typical of politicians only capable of a single focus issue, unable to explore the “unexpected” results and requirements of their decisions. The further consequence will be lost revenue from petrol and diesel. There never seems to be a serious investigation or disciplining of bad decisions or individuals profiting from their actions. Totally uncaring having encouraged the motor industry to invest millions in diesel only to demonise them for doing their job.
I can’t afford new cars, the last car was supposedly 62 mpg but I get 52 mpg on a run and £30 tax which I am still happy with but to buy a 17 or 18 plate now the MPG is less at 47 so would expect 37 and the road tax is £225 so where if I had the money is the incentive to buy a new car
The 17 or 18 plate is the same car make, model the same size engine doesn’t make a lot of difference apart from the road tax but with a smaller engine in it its 35 mpg and £155 road tax.
One of the main reasons must be that cars now last longer than ever : both of my daily use cars are 25 years old , and I have a couple of hobby cars at 47 and 62 years old respectively.
I can’t imagine myself needing to buy another car in my lifetime ( all my cars are petrol powered , BTW , and ‘green’ because I’m not wasting resources by scrapping cars and squandering materials and energy on needless manufacturing of replacements) . It is much more efficient to keep what you have going as long as possible – but of course the manufacturers would have you think otherwise..
And what of this claptrap about burning fossil fuels ? Here in Scotland, our energy comes either from renewables or from nuclear ( which will be phased out ) we have certainly got rid of most if not all fossil fuelled stations .
Electric cars certainly appear to be the future , but the technology is not yet mature . However , whatever cars we all drive pales into insignificance alongside dirty diesel buses , lorries , trains and ships spewing out pollution across the globe .
It is no coincidence that Hope Street in Glasgow has once again been voted the most polluted street in EUROPE, since a large part of it is buses and taxis only , and these vehicles cause untold congestion due to the fact that they spend so much time starting and stopping to pick up and set down passengers.
Over the years I’ve trusted the government less and less . First of was buy diesel. Then ban diesel. They ignored the fact that for this uturn and bad advice they still took billions of tax from us for the purchase of these cars .
Now EV cars with demands on a national grid which will nog cope with the demand. We will rely on other countries to supply us with electricity . Not s good scenario.
Now Brexit . Has any government minister got any common sense at all to have considered the problems of our many manufacturing industries . No they have not. In France, for example, people would have voiced their disaproval until their government listened . Here we are just sheep . Unless we take take a stand we will get what we deserve . So help us.
The slump in new car sales could not of course possibly be connected in part to a public realisation that the enthusiasm of car retailers to bamboozle us with PCP’s has been one of the greats rip-offs of all times. Car selling is merely an extension of the millennia old horse trade which has always been and still is a dodgy business. When we ever buy into a car we are conciously or unconsciously buying into negative equity. With PCP’s we are doing that on an even greater scale, not least because one is tempted to trade up beyond one’s realistic means and, for sure, we are heading for a ‘sub-prime’ financial distress way beyond that of the 2008 real estate fiasco.
I’ve never bought into negative equity with a car : I’ve never had a car I couldn’t recoup what I paid for it .
I’ve had my Mercedes 190E about seven years now ; paid £250 for it back then , do my own maintenance and generally spend a couple of hundred a year looking after it – tyres , oils , filters , discs , pads , a battery , rear exhaust section – nothing untoward . That car is now valued at 10 times what I paid for it .
My other daily driver , a 300SL , I got in a cashless swap for another car I’d paid a hundred pounds for . Apart from an expensive stainless steel exhaust system ( so I never have to buy another one ) it has been the same story as the other car with just routine maintenance done by myself , and if I wanted to sell , I could get back more than I’ve spent on it .
I have a couple of much older cars which are not in everyday use , but have never paid more for a car than I could sell it for .
Throwing money down the toilet in depreciation is for mugs .
If it wasn’t for the ‘Mugs’ purchasing new cars initially, you would have sweet Fanny Adams to purchase second hand and drive around in.
Sounds like you should join a web site called Autos***e.. You’ll be amongst like minded folk there, all good fun…..
Pcp is fantastic for the car sales, you can have any car you can’t afford for 399 a month then have to give it back after 3 years, now dealer gets it back an puts it out front for some one to buy again, this time may be at 33% apr on finance, I looked at the figures for BMW 530d, the balloon payment was 16400 after 3 years, and surprisingly enough they had 3 year old cars for 16500 on the forecourt.
Yes – it clearly shows that we didn’t learn too much from the 2008 crash! Human nature I guess, plus a rarity of common sense.
It makes sense to hang onto your current car if it’s in good condition, on the previous lower tax band and has average or below mileage. Give yourself time to see what the “clowns in charge” are going to do and if technology will solve the problem. Building thousands of cars with large (difficult to recycle) batteries is not the answer. The EV is a long way from becoming an affordable long-term solution.
New car prices are extortionate disguised by the PCP ploy of a monthly fee. Perhaps joe public is wiseing up and voting with its wallet.
Strange that an independent survey discovered that a far higher proportion of petrol cars failed their emissions test on MOT last year than diesel cars???
In other words Mr Speth your industry has been importing cheap car parts from European manufacturers? If you had been reading independent commentators like Jim Rickards Tim Price Simon Black and all the others, instead of the pap you get pumped at you, you would have seen this coming.
Really Brexit is slowing car sales down?
Why?
If the doom merchants are to be believed nothing is going to enter leave the country once we are a free nation again. Now surely is the time to buy a new car while we can still get them as it seems it will be impossible to buy one in the future at a reasonable price!
Personally I think not.
Ah but wait. HMG appears to be doing all in its power to demonise the diesel car so who is going to buy one now? We’ve already been down the road where petrol was evil and were encouraged to switch to diesel, now we have yet another about turn on previous HMG plans.
Are now expected to rush out and buy expensive electric cars with currently limited recharge facilities and many apparently with short ranges.
So maybe the reason is total lack of clarity on what type of car to buy rather than any half baked Brexit fears.
It should not be a big surprise that people are waiting, they perhaps have no confidence in what to buy for fear that whatever they do will turn out to be a costly mistake, that is certainly true in my case.
I believe the majority of us are totally baffled by the option to follow for the best and are all waiting for some miracle to happen like a dramatic price decrease in electric coupled to a mushrooming of charging points. With the way this country handles large projects that might not happen until a couple of years after both diesel and petrol cars are banned!
I wonder when HMG with start applying the excessive road fuel taxes to domestic electricity that I imagine we’ll all be using in years to come to charge our electric cars. That’ll make heating and cooking rather expensive don’t you think.
I agree with everything you’ve said.
You say the National Grid is powered by fossil fuels. Yes, yes partly, and to a lesser extent each year. With new storage capabilities now demonstrable the Grid could support a rise in EVs.
How adaptive have UK based producers including Nissan been to petrol engine improvements? An X trail with mild hybrid would have worked . JLR are suffering with a new Diesel plant at just the wrong moment but they don’t have a mild hybrid offering either. Where’s the New C Class has and the new VW 1.5 TSI engine is a peach. Ironic? You bet.
Remember Gordon Brown!
“Buy a diesel car and I guarantee that diesel fuel would always be 10p lower than petrol”. This would help us to help the planet.
Now we are told to buy EV’s to create the next potential planet polluter to be taxed. The dead batteries. The present battery life cells that are to be replaced every four to seven years, will, give the car dealers a scamming exercise on a plate. They will be able to substitute your good cells with older cells at any time and you will have no way of checking. You can check a brake pad or disc, you can check a tyre, but you cannot check a battery cell. The next planet pollutant will be the stockpiles of dead cells, fly tipping will be rampant, ( in my opinion). Then there will be a tax on cell replacement. I don’t know that these dead battery cells are in any way recyclable. That’s a sound planet saver, promote a non-recyclable industry. Perhaps they have invented a new planet saver colour…. as green is the new dirty money.
The negativity against diesel demonstrates a shocking level of distortion and ignorance of the facts . Diesel power will be with us for a very long time powering HGV’s, construction plant, ships etc. The need to greatly reduce emission levels is not disputed but politicians and environmental pressure groups should have specified a demanding lower target and left scientists and engineers to do what they have done since Leonardo, and let them come up with innovative new designs and technology that will allow these targets to be achieved. Improved “Add Blue” technology that answers the problem of lower performance at low exhaust temperatures and improved fuel injector design may well allow us to achieve near zero emission levels from diesel engines. Please do not shackle science – our future is dependant on continued innovations being developed. Politicians and others who have little understanding of the science who say “do not confuse me with facts, my mind is made up” are by far, the most dangerous and should be given support.
Well said. Politicians or experts on their behalf should explain the improvement of diesel technology. Adblue and other improvements have greatly improved Diesel engine cleanliness. A rush to electric is not the solution as this will ultimately cause more pollution, reduce revenue currently enjoyed by the exchequer and destabilise further the car industry. Movement toward a range of power options is far more sensible whilst improving technology and environmental conditions that manufacturers can work toward. ICE cars are falling off the cliff edge right now due to a lack of leadership and understanding by politicians!
I have driven diesel vehicles for many years and have no intention of giving up .The latest diesels on the market are cleaner than most petrol vehicles , and if maintained regularly will last many years without polluting the planet , but the politicians have as always got their heads buried in the sand and are speaking rubbish.
My car is 15 years old and some of my friends drive much older cars too. Why buy new when you can run your old one into the ground? I do not believe it is Brexit but a change in mentality among the more sensible in society.
I have just scrapped my 1996 Rover 420 diesel…. if I could get spare parts I would still be driving it quite happily
Wouldn’t honda civic parts fit. I thought they were the same car except for the badge.
Too many cars on the roads causing pollution and congestion things will have too change ?
Yes we need to get rid of people then there would less cars, less housing, more jobs for those living. you see the more people that come here the worse our pollution gets and the country where they came from creates less so makes us look even worse than we actually are
Don’t talk rubbish yourself, Roy.
Before we went in the Common Market we were still something of an industrial power and manufacturing wasn’t dependent, as it is now, on shifting stuff effortlessly across borders. Now we are an assembly plant for non-UK companies or, in some cases, part of an assembly plant – Airbus wings for instance. We’re attractive for our relatively cheap labour, oppressed workforce, tax breaks and – it may come as something of a surprise to you – proximity to the 500m population which is the EU.
We are no longer capable of producing iron and steel in sufficient quantities to build things such as UK ships to move our goods around – even if thought we might be able to do so we were we haven’t got the power capacity to smelt it – and we even have to go cap in hand to the US for aeroplanes for the RAF at £100m a pop. Nobody’s told us yet what we’re defending ourselves against but we’ll all merrily cough up the taxes to pay for them so don’;t be fooled when you read ‘…the government is spending £x million on this, that or the other…’ they aren’t – you are.
We’ll soon be going cap in hand to the US for their GM crops, chlorinated chickens, milk from cows which have a productive ‘life’ of two years before they are exhausted and slaughtered and hormone injected beef as we currently import 40% of our food from the EU which is unlikely to be tariff free as it is now. If you’re misguided or nostalgic enough to think that the British Commonwealth is going to be falling over itself to feed us you might spend a little time researching where Australia and New Zealand export most of their foodstuff now – or perhaps you think, misty-eyed for the past – that all those Antipodean farmers have been sitting around for the past 45 years just waiting for the call from the ‘old country’ do you?
A very large part of our GDP comes from ‘services’ (i.e.everything which is NOT goods) and the sad thing about this is that much of that can be moved to anywhere in the World – geographical integration is not needed – so our economy will inevitably go down the pan. We’re the sixth wealthiest country in the world at present (down from fifth a short while ago) with a failing health service, children going to school unfed, unwashed and in some cases not even toilet trained – and people living on the streets. What a wonderful advert for a civilised country we are, aren’t we?
There’s not much point in discussing where our labour shortfall is going to come from either, is there, as we’ve hardly made ourselves attractive to Europeans, have we?
Ok lets get realistic.
This is not just Brexit it is also the aftermath of the VW Diesel Scandal.
Land Rover had most of its production tied up in diesel vehicle and were hit hard when diesel sales dropped dramatically.
This has also had a big impact on most other manufacturers.
Blaming Brexit for everything is very lame.
Manufacturers across Europe stand to lose more if we crash out as any punitive measures work both ways and as we import more than we export from Europe.
So get a grip and look at the whole picture.
Just a small fact; thirty percent of the UK’s energy is now generated by renewable sources. There are material plans for a wind farm 35km off the coat of Hull that is the size of a small town (google it). Daily, new houses are built with solar panels as standard, and many hundreds are opting to install. I am aware of the carbon cost of manufacturing these kits, and some say the total output is never recovered in the life of the wind generator or the solar panel – but that’s a separate argument.
We are NOT ‘powered by fossil fuels’ as we once were; so, electric cars are (with current facts to hand) better than combustion engines.
And: Why is no-one arguing the case against commercial aircraft? At least 2% of global CO2 output is down to jet engines, but Heathrow is all Go for
that ridiculous turd runway (SIC)..
http://tinyurl.com/ybgdso8t
Nothing bad with diesels as they are economicical for long runs. It’s the urban environment which lets them down as most particulate filters can’t cope with the low temperatures that make the engines dirty in these conditions. There is little alternative apart from self generating hybrids linked to penalties for not switching to electric in an urban environment.
I have said for a couple of years that the roads will come to a standstill this situation is now happening.When leaving home it is not long before we are in a traffic hold up and this in the middle of the day.I used to enjoy driving having been a heavy goods vehicle driver for many years,but i now drive as little as possible.How can we keep putting more and more cars on the roads with no regard to the consequences .Age 78.
A pathetic irresponsible government is the root cause of this national problem. Continually indecisive in everything they do. Promoting diesel with the Tony Blair government without understanding or ignoring the health risks.Removing the subsidies on low emission vehicles. Placing car tax and fuel tax revenue as the major tax income.
Allowing and promoting all and any tax charges for all cars and combustion engines without declaring long term plans for all the other public transport ,taxies, railways and aircraft.
No overall transport policy that is sensible and proven to work.
A National Road network that is not fit for purpose and causing major health pollution by delays and uneconomic standing traffic.
We now have a national crisis whereby Petrol cars are blamed for greenhouse CO2 gas and diesel is killing people with their level of Nitrous Oxide and a government “sitting on the fence” pathetically waiting and watching for someone with a magic wand.
Unbelievable incompetence with Brexit and the lack of planning for a no deal is causing problems now and disgraceful, shameful panic reaction with EU resulting. A total insult to the British public and unrepairable embarrassment for the irresponsible children and comedians in British politics.
If this government was a business it should close and they all should be sacked, an action I would 100% support.
ULEZ charges… Where does the money go?
Car tax charges certainly arent being spent on roads!
The bottom has fallen out of the 2nd hand market. This is because of contract hire. They priced their deals in the expectation of a decent residual value, but that didnt happen. So the 2nd hand market is swamped, and contract hire costs have risen to cope with poor residual values. So less people are contract hiring, but buying cheap 2nd hand cars.
It does not belong to man who is walking, even to direct his own step. Ultimately everything mankind does eventually has a negative outcome in some way. We are not created to ‘self govern’ and the general state of this planet and mankind in general bears testimony to that fact. Yes we are capable of what some would consider incredible acts and at the same time have the capacity for the most utmost evil. We need to realise we need a different way and those amongst us with any semblance of real wisdom will realise this and seek out this different way.
The government need to scrap the extra road tax fee for new cars over £40k, maybe increase it to £60k. A lot of cars fall into this bracket and it means upgrading to a new car which is like for like spec with a 3 year old car increases your road tax. Bonkers.
There is another point, back in the 60’s and 70’s most cars became rust buckets in quite a short space of time and if it didn’t fall to bits then the engine would give up the ghost. Now cars are built much better (thank goodness) therefore meaning that people will keep them longer, this of course means that second hand cars will stay on the market longer and all together not so many new cars are needed
Instead of LEADING the way into pollution free vehicles the car industry has buried its head in the sand and produced just the opposite for many years. Motor sport shows the way in developments. Electric racing cars have been with us for some time now.
U.K. manufacturers are just beginning to get the idea that the world is being polluted to serious levels.
Wake up JLR.! Wake up Nissan! Wake up UK car industry. You have responsibilities !
does the Government know what it is doing? Apart from the shambles that is BREXIT. I am reading reports now that the Government is penalising people who have diesel cars (eg higher taxes, increased petrol prices), to the extent that the sale of diesel cars has plummeted and petrol cars is on the increase. It appears that the result of this is that CO2 emissions have shot up. Another knee jerk reaction that appears to have backfired!
This isn’t surprising, I am disheartened by the shambles from our leader, Pm May, waffled on for 3 years, and nout, she would have been removed long ago if she was Ceo of a company, but somehow has evaded, this was meant to be that way to scare off other countries from getting out.
Vic in Lowestoft
The Motor Manufacturers should stop complaining, and source components for the vehicles that they build by multi sourcing instead from a single source and “Just in Time” delivery. They place the onus on the manufacturer for the storage of the components.
Brexit again – NO. The industry has slumped over the past 5 to 10 years mainly because of the governments indecisions about diesels and emissions
SLUMP HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BREXIT!
ALL DIESELS OF A CERTAIN AGE ESPECIALY COMERSHALLS SHOULD BE REMOVED FROM THE ROAD .
THERE SHOULD BE MORE INCENTIVE FROM THE GOVERMENT TO CHANGE EXISTING VIEHICLES ESPECIALY AS IT WAS ON THERE RECOMENDATIONS A FEW YEARS AGO THAT THEY TOLD EVERYONE THE WAY TO GO WAS DIESEL !
I would use the bus but they are not reliable and do not run on time
What can I say but in time as more electric cars go on the roads more charging points will appear, also most cars are charged overnight when demand is low. Things will change gradually so the scare tactics this article cause are unfounded. We have two hybrids and they are saving us a fortune I will be converting one to LPG which will clean it up further and save is even more money! Neither were expensive and both are a pleasure to drive
They are not making anymore Hybrids after 2040 either .
I purchased a diesel Mercedes three years ago based mainly on the governments narrative about the benefits and incentives of changing away from petrol. Within months the politicians were discrediting diesel and the market prices started to fall. Last December I looked at changing to find that my car had lost a significant amount of cash and despite being less than three years old and in absolutely immaculate condition, nobody was prepared to offer more than about 50% of the price I had paid. “Diesels have taking a massive hit” is what the dealer said.
So now the politicians are going all out for Electric vehicles with no thought about the infrastructure we lack to service the need. We have ageing power stations, we are reluctant to build nuclear or indeed pursue fracking and we have already been warned that there may not be sufficient power to turn on the lights. So where and how are we to charge and run these electric vehicles. Are we to have cables running across the pavements in the cities or are most of the ordinary people going top have to queue up for the one or two charging stations at the supermarket.
You only have to look at Brexit to see that the politicians are sticking their oars into things they don’t understand and end up causing chaos. Living in the rural countryside I am starting to think I need to train my oxen and get them ready to take us into town shopping, at least that will get me out of paying some of the mooted city parking and the Lord Mayors inner city entry fees !
Tony : You appear to have been surprised to find that in effect your car had depreciated to about 50% of the price you had paid for it as a new vehicle nearly three years earlier. I reckon that depreciation at about that rate, i.e to fall in value by 50% over three years is close to normality so although that may be disappointing if you want to change cars frequently, it should be expected
Poor article, must distinguish between global production and UK production! Also if JLR could loose up to 60M a day then they must have it to loose it, and it is not refering to capital HIT to the bottom line, deisel is now 10p more expensive than petrol, some years ago it was 10p cheaper, gov done more than enough! Governent should curtail the trend to oversized over weight suv crossover 4×4 that are to big for uk roads, parking spaces, and most house drive ways and garages. Garages are usually used as utility rooms as the houses are mostly pathetically too small! So we really need smaller cars and larger houses.