First, we watched the rise of Tesla and now we’re witnessing the rise of China. For us Europeans, these are challenging times. But are we fully aware of what is at stake? From the UK perspective, I’m writing about an industry that has a turnover of around £67 billion a year and adds £14bn of value to the economy every year through £77bn of trade, as well as accounting for around 7% of the nation’s R&D spend and employing some 800,000 people.
One ofour proposals has been the creation of Ampere, our dedicated EV and software arm. This is the most substantial and comprehensive response from the European automotive industry to the challenges coming from both East and West. However, today I’m deeply convinced that we also need a collective response and a public authority able to coordinate a European mobilisation if we want our automotive industry to perform to its full potential.