Keeping the Wheels on the Road

The UK car industry is in crisis. There can be no doubt about that. But the exact causes are a matter of intense debate. Is it a perfect storm of diesel phobia, electric adulation, urban congestion and millennial minimalism that has led to a sudden downturn in our near century-long love affair with the motor car?And is Brexit the final factor that has come along to confirm that all is desperate in the automotive world? Or is Brexit, and the uncertainty that has prevailed over the past 30 months or so around it, the principal cause of this current malaise?This, the third in the Bite-Sized Brexit books, and edited by Professor David Bailey, the foremost commentator on the UK auto industry, Professor Alex De Ruyter, at the Centre for Brexit Studies, Birmingham City University, Neil Fowler and John Mair, analyses the current position of the UK’s car industry, the range of pressures and issues it faces and its likely shape after any form of Brexit from a range of perspectives. Seasoned industry experts, observers, commentators and representatives of the industry’s unions, provide arguments for cautious optimism through to rather shocked pessimism.This is a major contribution to the debate about Brexit and is required reading for anyone concerned about manufacturing in the UK.