Jaguar Land Rover has issued a stark warning to the government, claiming that any trade tariffs introduced as part of Britain’s Brexit deal could seriously hurt its business.
The company, the UK’s largest motoring manufacturer in terms of sheer output, said that everything from sales to jobs and the wider supply chain could be harmed in the likely event tariffs are imposed.
Strategy director for Jaguar Land Rover Hanno Kirner made the comments at the Paris Motor Show last week, following new statistics which show that demand for Brit-built cars overseas is soaring.
Demand for Brit-built cars on the rise
According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) the number of cars produced in the UK for foreign markets has shot up by 10.2 per cent in the last month alone.
One of the biggest fears for the industry is that Brexit could hobble the country’s flourishing car industry and leave many factories struggling to attract investment from foreign companies.
Kirner said that sales of Jaguar cars to EU countries doubled last year, while sales of Land Rover vehicles outside of Britain rose by 20 per cent.
Shortage of skilled workers
There are also concerns about restrictions on the free movement of people within the EU, with many manufacturers dependent on overseas talent to design and manufacture vehicles here.
It’s thought that the UK’s talent pools suffer from a shortage of skilled workers, meaning that companies have to source their employees from elsewhere.
Earlier this year, Toyota issued a similar warning by claiming that Brexit could lead to duties of as much as 10 per cent on its UK-built cars.
Similar warnings
Toyota claimed that if tariffs were imposed, it would force the company to either cut costs or make its cars more expensive to compensate, which could thereby risk hurting sales.
Almost 90 per cent of the cars that Toyota builds at its UK plants are exported, with the company stating that approximately three quarters of those are sold within the European Union.
However, in August, Trevor Finn, chief executive of multi-national car dealer group Pendragon, claimed that Brexit would give the UK a “huge, huge advantage” in making trade deals with foreign countries.
