UK and Germany Are Destroying Their Industrial Base

First up, we have a story on Webasto, a German auto-parts supplier, that has achieved a bankruptcy recovery plan with creditors. From Handelsblatt: Rettungsplan vereinbart – erste Gelder fließen bald - OR - Rescue plan agreed – first money will flow soon

Munich. After long negotiations, the rescue package stands for the ailing automotive supplier Webasto. The discussions between the board, owners, banks and participating car manufacturers have now been concluded, as it was said from industrial circles.

The financing package is reported to be less than two billion euros. Initial instalments are to be paid out in the coming days. Only the final written drafting of the contracts by the commissioned law firms is still missing. Webasto did not give any opinion on request.

Other suppliers are also in trouble. From Bild: Zwei deutsche Autozulieferer insolvent - OR - Two German automotive suppliers insolvent.

The two suppliers covered are The Huber Automotive AG from Mühlhausen in Baden-Württemberg, and MVI Group GmbH from Wolfsburg. They are being crushed by the EV mandates.

Huber produces ECUs, develops hardware and software for vehicles. As the “Wirtschaftswoche” first reports, sales in the 2023/24 financial year fell dramatically by around 58 percent to 38.9 million euros. Reasons: the weak demand for Electric cars and the generally tense Economic situation. Around 260 employees are affected by the bankruptcy.

"Weak demand for electric vehicles." Translation, people don't want electric vehicles, and the charging infrastructure is a long way from being ready.

MVI Group's customers are car manufacturers. Those manufacturers are in trouble, so their suppliers are as well.

The Wolfsburg MVI Group Lower Saxony is insolvent. The IT and engineering service provider lost orders because many customers are in difficulty. Around 300 employees work there, and their salaries are secured by the end of September via the insolvency money.

That is Germany, but they are not alone in their headlong rush to destroy their industrial base. From The Telegraph, by way of The Internet Archive: Electric cars are killing Britain’s automotive industry.

Lots of bold promises were made for the transition from petrol to battery-driven cars.

There is just one catch: with the news that the luxury manufacturer Lotus is losing almost half its workforce, it is becoming painfully clear that it is also the final nail in the coffin of the once mighty British car industry – and it is starting to look as if it is too late to save it now.

A decade ago Lotus was a niche brand in London, rating barely a footnote in the British auto industry. Jaguar Land Rover is now owned by an Indian company. Vauxhall closed a major plant. The trade association in Britain that monitors this stuff stated the the number of people working in British auto manufacturing has fallen to levels not seen since the 1950s.

It is not hard to work out all the things that have gone wrong for the industry. The post-Brexit supply chains were too complex. The Government also never managed to work out a way of reducing the paperwork to allow manufacturers to operate just-in-time systems that could survive our departure from the European Union.

Government regulations can't be reduced, at least not by people who are career bureaucrats. The British bureaucracy is several times larger today than it was at the height of the British Empire.

Above all, however, we have made a complete mess of the switch from petrol to electric vehicles. The “Green Commissars” that dominate policymaking have been determined to phase out petrol vehicles but never bothered to come up with a realistic plan for getting there.

When politicians who don't understand engineering, or power generation, they make laws and regulations that make no sense.

The hat tip goes to MGUY Australia and his video EV madness is KILLING the European automotive industry