Rev up UK auto exports and we’ll drive economic growth
The UK’s automotive industry is inherently global, touching every continent as an export sector. It remains Britain’s largest exporter of goods by value, with many of the products developed here the result of massive investment from overseas businesses. Yet more evidence of that came yesterday with £50 million announced to build a new component manufacturing plant in Sunderland. These often long-standing commitments to the UK support a nationwide workforce producing the latest cutting-edge technology for markets all over the world. As competition between countries seeking new investment in their own industries gets more fierce, however, the UK must think big in 2025, not just to protect our position but to win that competition.
SMMT is moving quickly off the mark in January with a flurry of international visits and activities that reflect a rapidly changing global automotive landscape. Hot on the heels of CES Las Vegas, SMMT this week supported the Department for Business and Trade’s mission to India, including the Bharat Mobility Global Expo in New Delhi, the country’s largest mobility event which unites nine simultaneous shows at three different venues across the city. It covers the full spectrum of the mobility value chain, at a scale that reflects the massive trade potential UK businesses can find in India, with its fast-growing vehicle markets and manufacturing base.
Thailand is another country offering significant growth to UK businesses, and is already South East Asia’s largest vehicle producer and second-largest new car market. SMMT is looking to help UK businesses exploit opportunities there and this week hosted a webinar and published a new report on the Thai automotive sector, covering everything from manufacturing and market trends to the supply chain and aftermarket, as well as the prospective opportunities and partnerships for trading the cutting-edge products for which Britain is globally renowned.
These efforts can pay maximum dividends, however, if the UK takes the right approach to its eagerly anticipated trade strategy and industrial strategy, both of which must have automotive at their heart. The right approach would focus on new, and improved, free and fair trade deals, and partnerships for products and critical materials with existing automotive nations as well as new and emerging markets. Such a strategy must also aim to make the UK more attractive as a place to do automotive business, with affordable green energy and meaningful support for our manufacturers and transformational vehicle markets.
The sooner that Britain can become more competitive for automotive investment, the sooner we can start attracting even more of it and producing more of the high value, innovative products we already export successfully, generating the economic growth the UK desperately needs.