The 25 percent rates imposed by President Trump in imported cars have added the pressures of vehicle manufacturers around the world, but pain could be prulpularly acute in the venerable automotive industry but marked from Great Britain.
Great Britain exports more than 70 percent of the cars it does. In 2024, he sent around 101,000 of those vehicles, about 17 percent of car exports, with a value of 7.6 billion pounds (about $ 10.1 billion), to the United States, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, a group of induys. Tariffs now threaten to close what had been one of the largest markets in Great Britain.
Throughout the decades, Great Britain has the reputation of producing innovative and iconic vehicles such as the Land Rover defender and the Morris Minor, which help the property of affordable cars such as the country of World War II.
In recent years, thought, the automotive industry has struggled to maintain rhythm, since it sails by obstacles, including global change to electric vehicles and the exit of Great Britain of its main export market, the European Union.
The annual number of cars manufactured in Britain has fallen almost 50 percent since the end of the last decade to approximately 770,000. Now many more cars imports than it does.
Given the rapid policy changes of the Trump administration, it is impossible for the executives of the automotive industry to know what level of tariffs will remain. But Washington’s movements are already bad news for some of Great Britain’s car manufacturers, who see the United States as a crucial growth market.
“It is a very disturbing movement for the manufacture of the United Kingdom,” said Peter Wells, an expert in cars from Cardiff University in Wales.
Mr. Wells said that companies would probably be forced to alter their plans, such as production and shipping. “So it’s already costing money to try to deal with volatility,” he said.
JLR, the Jaguar and Land Rover vehicle manufacturer, said it would suspend shipments to the United States for April. The company, owned by Tata Motors in India, is one of the largest vehicle manufacturers in Great Britain, but 28 percent of its sales on the last year were in North America, where it does not make cars.
Any long -term change in the United States is likely to have great implications for Great Britain car manufacturers. The United States last year sent only 18,000 vehicles to Britain, which imposes a 10 percent rate on US imports.
Some European models of American car manufacturers are doing well in Great Britain. The Ford Puma, which is made in Romania in a joint company, has recently led the best -selling model in Britain.
The manufacture of British cars is now dominated by a small group of international companies, including Nissan, which operates a large plant in Sunderland; BMW, which makes the mini; and Toyota.
To continue attracting investment, especially in the new electrical models, these plants must compete with rivals throughout the planet. Executives and analysts say that the industry faces a series of challenges, including high energy costs and stress in the network and services suppliers network after Brexit.
“Ultimately, the United Kingdom is not a competitive place to build cars today,” said Alan Johnson, Senior manufacturing vice president of Nissan in the region, to a parliamentary audience last week.
Stuart Bradley, main engineer at Warwick Manufacturing Group, part of the University of Warwick, said he thought that high-price brands of car manufacturers such as JLR or Rolls-Roy Mothor Cars could have a brighter future.
“I think the high value market will continue to be quite strong,” he said.
To the unions that represent the 200,000 workers estimated in the manufacture of cars in Great Britain, are concerned that tariffs are only the last of a series of blows that could lead to job losses or even plant closures.
Some manufacturers have closed British plants in recent years. In 2021, for example, Honda closed a plant in Swindon that used 3,500 people.
Unite, a union that repeats around 70,000 cars, estimates that the British automotive industry is operating almost medium capacity, probable in the profitability of profitability that comes from the dissemination costs of large volumes.
“It is not sustainable,” said Des Quinn, National Unite Officer for Automotive. “The whole sector is in crisis.”
Much depends on the difficult transition to electric vehicles. The industry says that it is being squeezed by the British government requirement to eliminate the sale of the sales of most cars with gasoline and diesel by 2030.
Great Britain had quickly advanced as its electric cars fleet. Great Britain led Europe, for example, in sales of electric cars in 2024, according to the British government.
The critics, they thought, say that the strict quotas imposed by the Government for the sales of electric vehicles have encouraged imports of electric vehicles such as Teslas, which are carried out in Germany or China, at the expense of the national industry. Chinese car manufacturers such as Byd are also making progress.
The question is whether manufacturers based in the British can catch up in the coming years in the production of smaller and cheaper electric cars for common consumers.
“I’m not completely sure that the entire industry will come unharmed,” Wells said.
