Summary of Automotive ‘facts’ from The Sunday Times - 12th June 2011
“Last year BMW made 216,302 of its new Minis in a single plant in Cowley, Oxford. Total production in the UK is on the up. Nearly 1.2m cars rolled off production lines in 2010 and 1.5m are forecast to be built this year”
….”BMW plans to invest £500m in a new generation of Mini cars and upgrading its 3 British plants”
…Nissan plans to spend £200m in Sunderland to produce a new generation of its best selling Qashqai.
…Nissan produced 423,262 cars in the UK last year …
“about 75% of the vehicles made in Britain are exported… the sector employs 700,000 people and contributes more than 10% of total British exports – worth more than £25 billion over the past 5 years”
“Jaguar Land Rover is committed to building a £1 billion engine factory in Britain.”
“General Motors recently relocated work worth about £150 from its global supply chain and handed it to British-based companies. In March, JLR announced more than £2 billion of supply contracts to about 40 British companies.”
…Didier Leroy, CEO of Toyota Europe says the company vies Britain as its European Centre of excellence for Hybrid engines…
“about 16% of Toyota and Lexus sales in the UK last year were hybrids, a figure set to rise to 20% this year.”
“Vince Cable, the business secretary, wants to make car production the focus of a manufacturing renaissance”
