Jagaur Land Rover wants to see credit flowing again from direct lending or state-backed loans, rather than receive a government bailout, its chief executive has said.
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“We are clearly in very difficult times, in difficult trading conditions,” chief executive David Smith told Sky News, according to Reuters.
“Unfortunately, what we’ve got now is a situation where consumers aren’t spending and comsumers aren’t lending, so it’s a double whammy.
“Somebody needs to put oil back into the engine in my view and really the only people who can do that are the government.”
Smith said the auto industry would meet with the government next week to discuss options on how to protect jobs and boost demand.
“The industry is not asking for bailouts or anything like that. What the industry is actually asking for is two very simple things: let’s try and find ways to get demand moving again … and then we need credit flowing again.”
“What we actually want is for government to help us get funding flowing back into the industry again either through direct commercial loans or the government may have to provide loan guarantees.”
Smith reportedly said he would also like the government to consider short-term funding to subsidise layoffs similar to those being requested in the Netherlands by JLR’s Indian parent group Tata’s Anglo-Dutch steel production unit Corus.
Meanwhile, a motor industry magazine has launched a campaign to change the tone of reporting in the national press and on TV from one of doom and gloom about falling car sales, manufacturing plants cutting production, business closures and redundancies, to one promoting the deals available to retail buyers.
Reasons include the recent VAT [sales tax] cut from 17.5% to 15%, the lowest interest rates for 315 years, better fuel efficiency of new vehicles, new car transaction prices are up to 10% lower than a year ago making cars more affordable and the fact that car makers have stocks of unsold vehicles they are keen to sell, leading to good offers.
