Toyota will fight for UK plant after Brexit

TOYOTA’S number-two said the firm will fight to continue operating its British factory after Britain leaves the EU, but insisted it would not yet demand guarantees from London before making a final decision over its future in the country.

Didier Leroy, chief competitive officer at t he world’s biggest automaker, made the pledge after the boss of rival Nissan warned he would need assurances from London before committing to more invest ment at a factor y in northeastern England.

Many f ir ms operat ing in Brita in, including some of Japan’s biggest companies, are worried about the future of t heir access to Europe follow ing Britain’s June vote to quit t he European Union.

Leroy acknowledged THAT an exit cou ld hur t t he competit iveness of Toyota’s operations in Britain– where it has two plants and employs about 3,400 people.

In comments on Wednesday but embargoed until yesterday, he said Toyota planned to “talk with our UK members, to motivate the team in the UK, to balance this negative impact”.

'Appropriate agreement'

He added: “Does it mean that it will be easy to do? No. Does it mean we are sure we will be able to do it? No. But I can tell you, we have a fighting spirit and we fully trust our people in the UK plant.”

The impact of Brexit on foreign firms remained unclear so there was no immediate plan to demand guarantees from the government, Leroy said.

“Practically nobody knows what the impact of Brexit will be, what will be the impact in terms of tariffs, of access to the market. The key point for us is not trying to negotiate anything,” he said.

“If there are tariffs or specific taxes, because we are exporting 85 percent of our production to continental Europe then it will be bad news. But we really trust that EU and UK governments will find the appropriate agreement.”

Last month Nissan’s top executive Carlos Ghosn said his firm would be looking for compensation if his company’s tax regime became less favourable or cross-border duties had to be paid once Britain left the European Union.

“If these kinds of principles are accepted we can go ahead because it will neutralise some of our concerns.”

Ghosn said last Thursday a decision on further investment would be made next month.

At issue is whether Nissan would continue building the next generation Qashqai sport utility at its Sunderland plant after 2019.

The plant is Britain’s biggest car factory, which has around 7,000 employees, making it the group’s largest facility in Europe.

Nissan “has to decide very quickly if they will continue to produce the cars [at the plant]”, Leroy said.

“We are not exactly in the same situation, we are not facing the same urgency at this stage.”