The weekend is not starting very well here in the UK. We reported today news of production cuts at two key automakers – Land Rover and Toyota.
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The latter also returned again to the crystal ball this week – and made some more adjustments. Yet Japanese output was up at most automakers in July, the first decent uptick in months.
Both Toyota and Land Rover – to their credit – have so far managed to avoid laying off people. Skilled assemblers, once lost, are not easily recruited and trained again.
Toyota, like its US counterparts, will keep those displaced from the second Auris shift on for training and other tasks. Land Rover, meanwhile, is moving some to work on its workhorse Defender line and others across town to sister car maker Jaguar where demand for the superb XF sedan exceeds supply.
All this is part of a painful global adjustment as realisation sets in that high fuel costs are here to stay. Neither automakers or SUVs will disappear; instead they’ll adapt and change to suit conditions. US automakers are seeking federal loans to help with the adjustment and altering plants to become more flexible as fast as they can. Future SUVs will still have the butch looks, and give drivers that all-conquering feel of a higher seating position, but they’ll be smaller, more fuel-efficient and still in demand.
Or, if you want the looks, but not the actual SUV, automakers might take a lead from their units in Brazil and come up with the SUV-lite like the new Renault Sandero Stepway and others of recent ilk, including the Panda Cross recently launched here in the UK.
As we noted recently, the auto industry is highly resilient. There’s pain in the US, UK and western Europe but gain in China, India, Brazil and Asia. Marketers are putting thinking caps on to move the metal; great if you can afford to buy in a downturn.
Plants may close and move, and, yes, some workers will be affected, but the industry and many of today’s products are not about to disappear any time soon.
Just change to suit.
Enjoy your weekend,
Graeme Roberts
Deputy Editor
just-auto.com
