Brexit thread

[life on mars]

Honda make less than 60 diesels per day in Swindon. No factor in the decision.

The UK built 5-door Civic is unique for the Western EU / UK markets. The Global Civic (Japan, China, Thai, Brazil, Canada) is predominantly a common design. By avoiding UK manufactured / styled cars Honda have saved a huge amount in avoiding D&D / Tooling costs, for a relatively low market share (in Europe).

The new Civic is one of 7 vehicles based on their new platform. The Swindon volumes are minuscule in the overall global volume case but the D&D cost was disproportionately high.

For anyone that calls this a shock, the contracts for the Civic21 replacement vehicle were due to be placed with the TierN suppliers in October'18. They have given excuse after excuse why the contracts were 5 months overdue.

For what it's worth I have been working on this vehicle (amongst many others) since March'17, so there's nearly 2 years work gone into the project before Honda have pulled the plug. I've now got to work out how to get recompense for that!

It does seem ,something big is changing in the automotive industry ,would you say this is less to do with Brexit , and more to do with the industry changing and countries bringing jobs home , with this Brexit window being an opportunity to announce it now. rather than later ?

[Des Parrot]

It does seem ,something big is changing in the automotive industry ,would you say this is less to do with Brexit , and more to do with the industry changing and countries bringing jobs home , with this Brexit window being an opportunity to announce it now. rather than later ?

I can't say too much because of the insider trading restrictions. In short it depends on the nationality of the customers. For Japanese companies it's tariff related, more their own than Brexit. For German & French companies it's 100% Brexit & without remorse. For JLR it's diesel. In all cases, they all have to generate funds towards electrification development. They're all running scared & there are some big players at huge risk. Watch FormulaE for the development of the big players, especially the emergence of the battery companies.

It's certainly not wholly down to Brexit but in many cases it's given the excuse many of these companies were looking for.