Peugeot agrees to buy vauxhall

[tinfoilhat]

This doesn't look good. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39175740

 

I read somewhere that it costs far more money to lay off German staff than UK staff. Vauxhall/Opel employ thousands in Germany and the company isn't doing very well. I can only see it going one way unfortunately, although I hope I'm wrong.

[Obelix]

No. The UK plants are prime for asset stripping and removal. I think it's going to go exactly the way that you expect.

[geared]

Aren't the UK plants running at a loss, or is that some of Fords ones??

[sgtkate]

And after Brexit it may be more difficult to import cars to the EU due to import limits and taxes, therefore I would strongly suspect that they will indeed choose to close the UK site over the German one if they needed to. Fingers crossed that they don't need to and that they can find cost savings without having to start making people unemployed.

[Obelix]

And after Brexit it may be more difficult to import cars to the EU due to import limits and taxes, therefore I would strongly suspect that they will indeed choose to close the UK site over the German one if they needed to. Fingers crossed that they don't need to and that they can find cost savings without having to start making people unemployed.

 

Most if not all of Vauxhalls parts chains come from the rest of EU. So they make in Germany/Belgium/Poland/France etc, move to here for assembly, sell back to Europe.

 

So when we leave the customs union, we have two customs crossings. Minimum. That's a lot of aggravation and cost.

 

Easier to strip the factories and move them to Poland or Romania.

[unbeliever]

And after Brexit it may be more difficult to import cars to the EU due to import limits and taxes, therefore I would strongly suspect that they will indeed choose to close the UK site over the German one if they needed to. Fingers crossed that they don't need to and that they can find cost savings without having to start making people unemployed.

 

It may be that it's harder to export cars to the UK from the EU in 2 years than now. On the other hand, the UK produces fewer cars then it buys, by about 500,000 or 20%, so this may tend to draw car production into the UK on the whole. At the expense of stifling of competition and increases in price of course.

 

It will be better all around of course if there are no such barriers post-Brexit. Fingers crossed.

[Obelix]

We wont have a customs union. There is invariably therefore going to be some barrier.

[unbeliever]

We wont have a customs union. There is invariably therefore going to be some barrier.

 

I think there's a good chance that there will be an agreement to waive the usual 10% tariffs. I expect the Germans to be keen on this for obvious reasons.

[Obelix]

And even with 0% tarrifs there is still going to be a customs border that needs to be corssed with all the attendant red tape and issues and costs that causes.

[unbeliever]

And even with 0% tarrifs there is still going to be a customs border that needs to be corssed with all the attendant red tape and issues and costs that causes.

 

Agreed. But perhaps an independent UK will have lower regulatory compliance costs overall.

Edited March 6, 2017 by unbeliever