Reply to: UK economy is about to surge back to life, says leading forecaster

[Bluenose]

we are at fork in the road with cars, as with all massive changes we should be prepared to take the right road an make as much profit as we can. Where are the govt sponsored electric car & PV panel firms?

RE: PV Panels, the story is well covered. The Chinese were willing to dump hundreds of billions of pounds worth of cheap panels into the EU and US markets at a near-loss. The EU almost went to trade war with the Chinese over it and then subsequently bottled it when the Chinese ignored the 2013 agreement to put a floor on prices.

The Chinese government have burnt hundreds of billions propping up their manufacturers to kill-off everyone else - there is a story of woe currently regarding what is left of the U.S firms.

I would hope, that once we leave the EU that the UK government will apply correct levels of tariffs to Chinese PV panels they are dumping onto the market and then start to re-invest into UK PV technology start-ups but it seems that ministers are too limp wristed with the Chinese on issues like this.

Something tells me that once all the known producers of PV panels in the EU and US are killed off that prices will slowly rise as although the Chinese can afford to continue to burn through tens of billions doing this (propping up sectors) I am sure they have other priorities.

http://www.publicfinanceinternationa...ng-debt-levels

[WTFH]

we are at fork in the road with cars, as with all massive changes we should be prepared to take the right road an make as much profit as we can. Where are the govt sponsored electric car & PV panel firms?

The government did support PV panels for a while, but then realised they were losing out on tax and the power companies were losing out on profits. You can't take money away from big businesses (particularly when they are foreign owned and foreign bank-rolled)

[vetran]

we are at fork in the road with cars, as with all massive changes we should be prepared to take the right road an make as much profit as we can. Where are the govt sponsored electric car & PV panel firms?

[Bluenose]

The German car industry is built on quality, the yanks are nowhere near matching that level of process experience and it shows.

I would agree with you if the Germans were playing the same game as Tesla, which they are not at the moment.

It is for certain that if you can build a car with significantly less components then you need less engineering expertise to design and build them.

I am not questioning the Germans expertise or brilliance in this area, I would simply argue that a fully automated electric car programme will shrink the German car industry by a double digit percentage factor. As not only do you have the component and supply chain impact, you also have the impact of being able to send your car, fully automated, to family (and friends) to let them use it.

Why have 3 or more cars on the drive when we have this flexibility ?

[bobspud]

Yes tesla had complaints on the early models of the X but I drove one early this year and it's using the same steering gear as mercedes and was a bloody nice car to drive. I wouldn't bet on the middle fleet car sales holding up against the model 3.

[original PM]

Double Meh.

https://amp.theguardian.com/business...ank-of-england

[original PM]

Meh

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017...ble-democracy/

[WTFH]

India, Japan, and Germany are building a lot of cars in the UK, yes.

And France at the Nissan and Vauxhall plants.

[scooterscot]

It's building a lot of cars considering it has no industry.

India, Japan, and Germany are building a lot of cars in the UK, yes.

[woohoo]

How old do you think I am?!

The UK never had a *real* car industry. Nobody was interested design. Strikes? Oh yeah we like them.

It's building a lot of cars considering it has no industry.

[northernladyuk]

6.3

FTFY

[sal]

Robots increasingly make cars.

We need to make the robots.

Then convince someone to buy them instead of one of the well established brands, when making multi million/billion $ investment. Yeah, I can see this happening, sure.

[PurpleGorilla]

Your generation has the chance to build it all up again ! Rule Brexitannia ! Brexitannia rules the waves ! Show the Europeans how to build cars !

Robots increasingly make cars.

We need to make the robots.

[PurpleGorilla]

How old do you think I am?!

63

[stek]

Ford used to own Aston Martin.

David Brown Tractors too...