Vocal Voices

With the release of the company figures we learn a few things.

It was supposed to be that JLR were leaving the UK because of Brexit and the uncertainty. That JLR would make losses if the UK had a hard Brexit.

Until we learn that.

Jaguar chief executive Ralf Speth said: "Jaguar Land Rover reported strong third-quarter sales in the UK and North America, but our overall performance continued to be impacted by challenging market conditions in China."

None of which would be overly impacted by Brexit. However, given the non EU sales (post Brexit), moving production into the EU and, potentially, into the tariff war with the US, does not sound like any kind of sense.

Especially since..

Much of the firm's model range is currently diesel-powered, while diesel sales in Europe have been falling.

Until you realise that moving to Eastern EU virtually halves the labour costs for JLR.

Losing our jobs to Brexit? Not a chance, this has been in the works for a long time and is part and parcel of the asset write down. In fact JLR thought they were going to keep the good sales to the UK whilst cutting costs on wages. Might be a big oops there in the case of Hard Brexit.. So much so that they might be forced to retain manufacturing in the UK to reduce the impact.

JLR were wanting to move production to Mexico in 2015, long before the Brexit referendum was held and the result known. The EU then allowed Slovakia to make its bid, admittedly with a sweetener, and thus keep 5,000 jobs in the EU, and that is wrong is it? Keep jobs in Europe or export them to Mexico - tough one.

Whatever, the UK was going to lose those jobs regardless of Brexit.

But if this is about shenanigans am I also correct in thinking that our own government offered a sweetener to Nissan to continue to produce models at Sunderland. A sweetener with everything to do with Brexit... and that's fine, is it? It has worked out sooo well.

But why even bring Brexit up?

JLR was looking to move to a cheaper production economy and would have gone to wherever was offering the best deal. Oh, hang on, that's what is happening.

Is it a Brexit myth? No. Will the leave deflectors and no ownership its not our fault crew use it to try to pin something on Remainers? Put your mortgage on it.

Workingman wrote:But why even bring Brexit up?

Because the usual suspects in the media and the press did. So when the results came out and it was proven, as you say, to be false, I mentioned it.

I grow a little tired of the "see Brexit did it" every time something like this happens. Same with the banking. It is not as if the EU have not been trying to force our trade away from London. They have been trying to mandate that all Euro denominated trade clearances happen in the Eurozone for nearly a decade now. Once we've left the EU I'm sure they will mandate it. What they don't realise is that Euro clearing is less than 1/3 of the clearing done in London. Significant, but hardly the majority. Which means that the chances Euro clearing will move to the $ is high. Which is the kind of own Goal the EU is excellent at.

So I just poke and prod every now and again. Business and trade was flowing away from the UK, just as it is flowing away from the EU in general, due to the protectionist stance of the EU market. What irks me is that, now, every long planned move of business suddenly becomes Brexit related.

For Nissan, they never intended to manufacture the xTrail in the UK; but for Russian sanctions. Because they have been manufacturing the xTrail in Russia since they created it. Now they need somewhere else and the UK seemed the best fit. Notably, they did not choose to expand their Spanish operations, where they manufacture the Navara and other vehicles. They chose to pull back to Japan. Which says, to anyone who is really listening, that the EU, apart from the UK, is not a place Nissan really wants to manufacture. Even though they are owned by Renault. Bit of a thought that, isn't it.

The Nissan move tells me more than they are saying. The move of the xTrail was a stopgap move until they had decided what to do. The UK would not have benefitted from it on a long term basis.

Just grumpy I guess.