NAA Event Review: Grant Thornton Webinar – The UK Economy and its Impact on Automotive
We hosted our most recent webinar event, “The UK Economy and its Impact on Automotive”, earlier this month in conjunction with Grant Thornton.
Owen Edwards, Head of Downstream Automotive for Grant Thornton, took delegates through the current status and future outlook for our sector, starting with a current overview of the UK economy. We learned that inflationary pressures have eased from recent highs, but are now picking up and interest rate cuts are likely to be slower than previously expected. Real GDP growth is set to be propped up by private consumption and whilst consumer confidence has improved from its 2022 lows, it remains firmly in negative territory.
Globally, OEMs are struggling to increase capacity of their US and EU plants, and in terms of new vehicles, Owen explained how we are back to a “push” market, but there are risks to the new and used car market, including how OEMs will meet their Zero Emission Vehicle targets.
Looking upstream, the supply chain is coming under pressure and automakers’ profits margins have also fallen below those of their suppliers.
We then focused on the government’s Industrial Strategy and its potential impact on the automotive sector, comparing this with the Industrial Action Plan for the EU Automotive Sector. The impact of US tariffs at 25% on any non-US manufactured was also reviewed.
Finally we focused downstream on what is happening in the UK automotive dealer arena, where all brands will not be impacted equally because of prior years’ new vehicle sales volumes.
A copy of the presentation slides is available on request – please contact Zoe.
