The real reason the European Motor Industry is in real trouble is because they chose to cheat on emissions software, got caught out and had to pay billions in compensation, undermining confidence and impacting their hard worked for brand images. Made worse by a political situation which forces ever growing compliance and energy costs onto its manufacturing bases, making them increasingly less competitive on the world stage.
Those billions they paid in compensation, (pointed out at the time by particularly the German manufacturers) was diverted away from R & D on future platforms and adoption of new technologies. Add in the more generous working conditions than competitors and the shift to lower production cost bases across the world and it's now all coming home to roost.
It's not as if this is entirely new, Germany where ever possible bought up the remnants of UK motor manufacturing industry at knock down prices when it went thru a steep decline. So the writing was on the wall and excellent examples like Rolls Royce and Bentley, Mini and so on snapped up, were clear indicators of the future travel for that industry. And to make things far worse they cheated and got caught..............
Last edited by JohnHarris; 01/01/26 11:24 AM.
