Centre for Brexit Studies

Ian Henry is a visiting Professor in Automotive Business Strategy at the Centre for Brexit Studies at Birmingham City University for the Centre. See below for his latest posts.

As the UK’s automotive manufacturing sector copes with the administrative burden of Brexit (fortunately without tariffs and with no limits, as yet, on EU market access) and emerges from COVID-induced economic slowdown, the lack of semiconductors (chips in common parlance) is hitting the industry where it hurts – in its supply chain run on just-in-time principles. Global forces are having as big an impact on UK production as any Brexit-induced shocks have had to date. (Click to read full blog)

Having been notable for his silence since arriving as CEO of JLR last year, Thierry Bolloré strode onto a stage at the Gaydon HQ on February 15 to announce Project Reimagine, charting a path to an all-electric, carbon-neutral and hopefully profitable future.   Whether the new strategy will work will become apparent over the next few years, but after a period of soul-searching and tough cost-cutting, it does seem as though JLR has a plan, and a man at the top with the drive to deliver it. (Click to read full blog)

So Nissan has decided to remain in the UK; how soon and how much new investment will take place here remains to be seen; but Nissan keeping its existing assets going is good news, for now.  How far its operations remain oriented to Europe or become more UK-focused will be interesting to observe.  In truth, with even the thin UK-EU deal which was agreed at the end of 2020, Nissan was always much more likely to stay than go.  Nissan made clear that without the deal, the plant would have closed; even so, this is not winning the Premier League – it is staying in it, with difficulty, rather like Burnley seems to do each year. (Click to read full blog)

That a trade deal has been at been agreed at the last minute between the UK and EU comes as a big relief for manufacturing sectors like automotive, which would have faced tariffs of 10% on exports and imports of cars in the event of no deal – an outcome widely viewed as potentially ‘devastating’ for the sector. (Click to read full blog)

Recently the rather unusual plans of a new entrant into automotive manufacturing – Ineos – to make SUVs in Wales have been paused (for which read almost certainly cancelled); shortly after this news came reports that a fledgling – but as yet not fully funded – British start-up, Britishvolt, would build a gigafactory for in Wales, near the new Aston Martin plant. One piece of bad news quickly followed by a piece of potentially good news.  Maybe, or maybe not. (Click to read full blog)

As the UK economy is slowly released from its lockdown, the free-market-oriented Conservative government is facing up to having to a change in strategy, involving a degree of state involvement or direction across huge swathes of the economy; this would be an anathema to many on the right of UK politics. (Click to read full blog)

Speaking to the FT from a Westminster café, rather than the gilded rooms of the Treasury, Sajid Javid told UK businesses that they had had three years or more to prepare for leaving the EU so they should be ready for the UK to no longer follow EU rules.  The country will no longer be a rule taker. (Click to read full blog)

While the UK political system has ground to a halt amidst the ongoing Brexit saga (with no certainty that Thursday’s upcoming general election will solve the problem), the once dynamic vehicle manufacturing sector has entered a period of potentially inexorable decline. (Click to read full blog)

After the proposed FCA-Renault merger foundered, the FCA-PSA merger seems likely to go ahead.  The real centre of power in the new company will be in France and as a result, if Renault and Nissan can maintain their alliance in some functional form in the years ahead, France will have two global automotive champions. The corporatist French state will be delighted. (Click to read full blog)

One of Brexit’s biggest cheerleaders, billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, the man who founded Ineos Chemicals and who took over the controversial Sky cycling team, has committed to making his long-heralded Grenadier, the so-called spiritual successor to the Land Rover Defender, in Wales. (Click to read full blog)

As the UK hurtles with increasing speed towards the likely chaotic and disruptive impact of a “No Deal” departure, the vacuity of such statements is becoming clear, at least to the few rather than the many. (Click to read full blog) 

On July 5, JLR confirmed  it would invest several hundred million pounds in its Castle Bromwich factory to make the next XJ as an electric car.  Further electric models, a large SUV and probably electric versions of or replacements for the XE/XF, will follow. (Click to read full blog)

Birmingham City University’s Centre for Brexit Studies is delighted to announce that Ian Henry, Managing Director of AutoAnalysis, has been appointed Visiting Professor at the Centre. (Click to read full blog)

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