AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)10/18 Report--

Britain and the European Union said on October 17 that they would reach a framework agreement on Brexit, subject to formal approval by the European Union and approval by the British Parliament, according to the Associated Press.

It is understood that Brexit has entered its sixth year. After the new Prime Minister Johnson took office, he has taken many radical measures to promote the process of Brexit. So far, it seems that the result of Brexit will be announced to the world next month.

According to relevant sources, when Britain decided to leave the European Union, car companies began the road of "leaving the UK":

Nissan's Sunderland plant, the largest in the UK, mainly produces Xiaoke and Juke, as well as leaf electric cars, with an annual production capacity of about 440000 vehicles, and two daytime shifts will continue to maintain its capacity.

Earlier this month, sources revealed that if the UK does not reach a Brexit agreement, then Nissan will reconsider whether to produce the next generation of customers, or lead to the eventual closure of the factory.

In fact, Nissan decided to produce X-Trail at its Sunderland plant as early as 2016, but Nissan withdrew the production plan in February due to the uncertainty of Brexit. In addition, Toyota has repeatedly stated that if the UK follows the path of Brexit without an agreement, the company will consider the possibility of an increased tariff burden, perhaps shutting down production lines in the UK in 2023.

In addition to Nissan, Honda has also taken steps against Brexit. In February, Honda announced that it would close its Swinton plant in the southwest of the UK in 2021, its only car plant in Europe, and the first car company to decide to close its plant in the UK.

It is understood that the Swinton plant mainly produces Civic five-door hatchbacks and Honda CR-V crossovers, most of which are exported to Europe. According to data, Civic sold 42308 vehicles in Europe in 2018 and Honda CR-V sold 27337 in Europe. The plant has a capacity of 160000 vehicles, accounting for about 10 per cent of total UK car production.

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Local people were outraged at Honda's factory closure, which was opposed by the top four in the Houses of Parliament in London on March 6.

In addition, the French car manufacturing trademark Citroen may stop all production at the Vauxhall plant in Ellesmere, UK, and shift production to continental Europe, where the company has selected a site in southern Europe for future production of Vauxhall Astra and Opel Astra models, in case the UK officially leaves the EU with unsatisfactory results.

In addition to the above car companies, BMW, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover and other car companies also tend to be consistent, began to break away from the UK.

In March, BMW planned to withdraw some of its engine and MINI production lines from the UK; Jaguar Land Rover also cut vehicles at its UK plant to reduce the risk of Brexit; and Ford cut jobs at its UK plant through a restructuring plan.

With the statements of these international car companies, the British auto industry has experienced a sharp decline. In the first half of this year, total car production in the UK reached 1.7 million units a month, down nearly 20% from the same period last year, while total exports also fell 15.6% from the same period last year. It has fallen for 13 months in the year to June. New investment in the auto industry plunged 70 per cent from a year earlier to just £90 million.

It is worth mentioning that Brexit has little impact on Chinese car companies, and the layout of Chinese car brands in the UK is not much.

SAIC set up an R & D center in the UK in 2005 to design and develop models for Roewe and Mingjue brands, but there is no factory in the UK.

After Geely acquired the London Automobile Company, it changed its name to London Electric vehicle Company in 2017 and transformed itself into a new energy commercial vehicle manufacturer. Because the company's business is basically in the British home market, the scale is limited, so the impact is not significant. In addition, Geely has also acquired British sports car brand Lutes, but its production base has been determined to be in Wuhan and has not yet started production.

Therefore, for Chinese brand car companies, Brexit has little or even positive impact on China, because once Brexit is completed, multinational car companies will reduce their investment in the UK. For China's current development, some car companies will give priority to investing in the Chinese market. In addition, layoffs in the automobile industry and factory closures will also cause more talents to move to China in search of new job opportunities, which will help Chinese car companies to absorb talents.

Having said that, it will take time to prove all this.

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