UK politicians urge government to try for Apple Car production jobs

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited February 2021
Ministers of Parliament in the United Kingdom are urging Apple to produce the rumored "Apple Car" in the country, to invigorate the jobs market hit by the pandemic.

Credit: AppleInsider
Credit: AppleInsider


A number of MPs are encouraging the country's government to take an interest in Apple's vehicular project. They are trying to convince the UK to ask Apple to use the country as one of its bases of manufacturing for the self-driving car.

While Apple has reportedly been in talks with major producers in Asia, it seems the UK could be part of the same conversation.

Bracknell Conservative MP James Sutherland told The Telegraph the idea was a "no brainer," and for Apple to "bring new car production to the UK, use the high-tech workforce that we already have, create new jobs and build electric cars."

The sentiments were echoed by Doncaster Conservative MP Nick Fletcher. "As the economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic this year, we should be engaging with new, innovative industries that help boost economic growth while helping the environment."

Dudley North Conservative MP Marco Longhi suggested the move could be a major boost for parts of the UK with a history in car production. "This would be a fantastic investment for the Midlands and the Black Country," said the minister. "This will mean jobs for people locally and it would buy an endorsement of UK PLC in a post-Brexit environment."

A Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.

It is likely that Apple will spread out the manufacturing of the Apple Car, once it reaches that phase. It makes sense for Apple to use multiple assembly plants for the large-scale goods, with each covering vast markets.

The UK has previously attempted to secure new manufacturing jobs in the past, so reaching out to Apple isn't a stretch of the imagination. In 2019, it attempted to woo Tesla to construct a gigafactory, but lost out to Berlin.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 57
    Literally, don't do it. Do not do it. The UK is a terrible place to do business. Brexit has destroyed the many to enrich the minuscule few. The Tory governments of the last ten years have ruined us. Build the Apple Car somewhere else. Please.
    GeorgeBMacfotoformatargonautwatto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 57
    GeorgeBMacGeorgeBMac Posts: 11,421member
    darkpaw said:
    Literally, don't do it. Do not do it. The UK is a terrible place to do business. Brexit has destroyed the many to enrich the minuscule few. The Tory governments of the last ten years have ruined us. Build the Apple Car somewhere else. Please.
    Yeh, why would anybody want to do business with a go-it-alone rebel -- particularly one that's been on the decline for over half a century?

    But, in addition, even its traditional auto makers have been taken over by foreign companies who wanted the brand name more than anything else. 

    So, why would an auto maker want to go there?

    fotoformatargonautwatto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 57
    blastdoorblastdoor Posts: 3,529member
    A design center, sure. But manufacturing seems a huge stretch. 
    JWSCargonautwatto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 57
    blastdoorblastdoor Posts: 3,529member
    darkpaw said:
    Literally, don't do it. Do not do it. The UK is a terrible place to do business. Brexit has destroyed the many to enrich the minuscule few. The Tory governments of the last ten years have ruined us. Build the Apple Car somewhere else. Please.
    Serious question — who is enriched by brexit? 

    My impression has been that it’s bad for everybody, that it’s a collective delusion among older, less educated English (certainly not Scottish) nationalists mourning the long lost empire. 
    GeorgeBMacmuthuk_vanalingamargonautwatto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 57
    Talking of deluded....

    The UK is a fantastic place to do business, freed from the shakles and opression of the EU, we are free to do as we please, and with a trade deal with the EU the apple car could be built here and sold allover Europe.

    For the record im a 26 year old uni masters degree holder who voted leave, its not just ‘deluded’ or older people.

    im so glad we regained our freedom from the EU. We are now free from restrictions, free from opression, free from daft regulations, and free to do as we please without asking our ‘masters’ in Brussels to permit it.

    but back to the point, built here would make it one of the best manufacturered cars in the world.
    selleringtonequality72521elijahgaderutterlkruppwatto_cobraJanNL
  • Reply 6 of 57
    Well, of course the MP's want the government to try and get the UK to produce the Apple Car.

    At the moment they're on their knees, desperate for absolutely anything to offset the almighty - and completely predicable - mess that Brexit is causing and will continue to cause for years to come.

    blastdoor said:
    darkpaw said:
    Literally, don't do it. Do not do it. The UK is a terrible place to do business. Brexit has destroyed the many to enrich the minuscule few. The Tory governments of the last ten years have ruined us. Build the Apple Car somewhere else. Please.
    Serious question — who is enriched by brexit? 

    My impression has been that it’s bad for everybody, that it’s a collective delusion among older, less educated English (certainly not Scottish) nationalists mourning the long lost empire. 
    A few weeks in, and we're still no clearer as to what these supposed benefits off Brexit are. Ask any Brexiteer and they can't answer, and just resort to soundbites and nonsense about 'oppression'. Give me strength.
    GeorgeBMacargonaut
  • Reply 7 of 57
    blastdoor said:
    darkpaw said:
    Literally, don't do it. Do not do it. The UK is a terrible place to do business. Brexit has destroyed the many to enrich the minuscule few. The Tory governments of the last ten years have ruined us. Build the Apple Car somewhere else. Please.
    Serious question — who is enriched by brexit? 

    My impression has been that it’s bad for everybody, that it’s a collective delusion among older, less educated English (certainly not Scottish) nationalists mourning the long lost empire. 
    Brexit certainly didn't hurt its vaccination efforts, considering the disaster that the EU is on that front with its suboptimal common purchasing agreement: the UK leads all major countries of the world, with nearly 20% of its population having got at least one dose. (US is second best -- again among major countries, with ~13%). Plenty of reporting on all this for those interested, so I am not providing cites. 

    As to the economy, the jury is still out. But I agree, manufacturing is not the country's forte, but that is a problem that predates Brexit.  
    selleringtonequality72521JanNLelijahgaderutter
  • Reply 8 of 57
    The UK has done amazingly well on the vaccine front, but that has little to do with membership of the EU. We're unlikely to have taken part in the EU scheme even if we were still a member (according to government ministers).

    Personally, Brexit has been a painful, very expensive and extremely worrying mess for me. That's not 'project fear' or a prediction, it's happening to me now.

    The question that always seems to get lost when people tout the 'benefits' of Brexit, is whether they are equal too, or an improvement on what we already had.

    Invariably they're not. Almost everything is a downgrade. A bit like your house burning down, then calling someone giving you a 2 man tent a 'bonus'.

    The new import/export costs per year amount to almost as much as we were paying into the EU anyway. The whole thing is just a bafflingly nonsensical, illogical farce,
    GeorgeBMacargonaut
  • Reply 9 of 57
    avon b7avon b7 Posts: 7,973member
    ionicle said:
    Talking of deluded....

    The UK is a fantastic place to do business, freed from the shakles and opression of the EU, we are free to do as we please, and with a trade deal with the EU the apple car could be built here and sold allover Europe.

    For the record im a 26 year old uni masters degree holder who voted leave, its not just ‘deluded’ or older people.

    im so glad we regained our freedom from the EU. We are now free from restrictions, free from opression, free from daft regulations, and free to do as we please without asking our ‘masters’ in Brussels to permit it.

    but back to the point, built here would make it one of the best manufacturered cars in the world.
    At 26 you are not aware of many of the things the EU brought to the UK. 

    You are also an exception here. It was older people who largely swung the referendum vote. If UK citizens living in the EU (who had the most to lose with Brexit) had been allowed to vote (many, myself included, were not allowed to vote) then Brexit would never have happened. If 16 and 17 year olds had been allowed to vote (they weren't, in spite of there futures being at stake) Brexit wouldn't have happened either. That's without taking into account the lies and manipulation by the leave campaign. 

    As far as trade deals go, is anyone in the UK happy? The day after the referendum, the EU made something clear. You can't be better off out than in. That obviously wasn't going to change and of course hasn't.

    Now it's time for the UK to come to terms with that. All I've seen so far from various industry organisations is pain, complaints and frustration, which Boris and cohorts are labelling as 'teething problems'. 

    I think the UK's car industry position will slip unless it is artificially supported by government. Either way, past experience will not be enough to make the UK an attractive proposal for assembling an Apple car. 


    GeorgeBMacmuthuk_vanalingamargonaut
  • Reply 10 of 57
    ionicle said:
    Talking of deluded....

    The UK is a fantastic place to do business, freed from the shakles and opression of the EU, we are free to do as we please, and with a trade deal with the EU the apple car could be built here and sold allover Europe.

    For the record im a 26 year old uni masters degree holder who voted leave, its not just ‘deluded’ or older people.

    im so glad we regained our freedom from the EU. We are now free from restrictions, free from opression, free from daft regulations, and free to do as we please without asking our ‘masters’ in Brussels to permit it.

    but back to the point, built here would make it one of the best manufacturered cars in the world.
    Every brexiteer I know is like a cast member from the “Crown” longing for the empire to return. You used to have huge opportunities to work and live in Europe, they are now gone , or at least heavily restricted. It’s pretty much a gigantic mess brought on by the older generation. The British car industry is in terminal decline, especially with the EV mandate coming up. No car maker will invest in retooling for EV’s in a small market.
    GeorgeBMacargonaut
  • Reply 11 of 57
    JWSCJWSC Posts: 1,203member
    blastdoor said:
    A design center, sure. But manufacturing seems a huge stretch. 
    Much better and more realistic idea.  Britain’s got talent!

    But with Brexit and horrible unions it’s a no-brainer for Apple to NOT see the U.K. as a good place for an assembly plant.
  • Reply 12 of 57
    darkpawdarkpaw Posts: 212member
    anantksundaram said:

    Brexit certainly didn't hurt its vaccination efforts, considering the disaster that the EU is on that front with its suboptimal common purchasing agreement: the UK leads all major countries of the world, with nearly 20% of its population having got at least one dose. (US is second best -- again among major countries, with ~13%). Plenty of reporting on all this for those interested, so I am not providing cites. 
    This was possible whilst in the EU, and actually, the deals for the vaccines were done whilst in the EU. Brexit has nothing to do with this. We merely authorised the vaccines first and earlier than the EU. From this article:
    Under European law a vaccine must be authorised by the EMA, but individual countries can use an emergency procedure that allows them to distribute a vaccine for temporary use in their domestic market.

    Britain is still subject to those EU rules during the post-Brexit transition period which runs until the end of the year (2020).

    The UK's own medicines regulator, the MHRA, confirmed this in a statement last month.

    And its chief executive, Dr June Raine, said on Wednesday that "we have been able to authorise the supply of this vaccine using provisions under European law, which exist until 1 January".
    So, nothing to do with Brexit.
    lolliverargonaut
  • Reply 13 of 57
    darkpawdarkpaw Posts: 212member

    ionicle said:
    Talking of deluded....

    The UK is a fantastic place to do business, freed from the shakles and opression of the EU
    Do you have an example of these "shakles" (shackles)? You realise that we were in the same committees as other member states, right? We all had a say in the laws and directives that all member states followed. That's why we were able to buy and sell to every EU country without unnecessary paperwork. Brexit has added paperwork. It is the only trade deal in history that has erected trade barriers. I believe we were the ones who proposed and designed the Single Market, which is flourishing in the EU member states, but we're no longer a part of it.

    we are free to do as we please, and with a trade deal with the EU the apple car could be built here and sold allover Europe.
    Yes, like all that seafood we now cannot sell to the EU. Wasn't Brexit all about "the fish"?

    For the record im a 26 year old uni masters degree holder who voted leave, its not just ‘deluded’ or older people.
    Brexit isn't about people being dumb or intelligent, so having a degree doesn't make your decision any more right or wrong than anyone else's. Unless your degree is in trade deals, politics and tax avoidance, it doesn't really mean much.

    My best friend voted to leave because he was annoyed that he had to buy a car part a second time because a new EU Directive meant the original part he'd bought didn't have a certain EU standards mark on it. In reality, the mark on his was merely superseded by a new, updated mark. Too late. He simply didn't check his info first, and had a knee-jerk anger reaction, and voted out. He's a visual effects artist; he's not stupid.

    im so glad we regained our freedom from the EU.
    Yes, no more freedom to go to EU countries with just our passports; now, we need a visa and more and more paperwork. Thank you, Brexit! /s

    We are now free from restrictions
    Name them.

    free from opression
    How was the EU oppressing us? Do you have any specific examples?

    free from daft regulations
    Name them. Do you mean we're now free to start using those neonicotinoids that kill bees? Yay! /s

    free to do as we please without asking our ‘masters’ in Brussels to permit it.
    Again, they were never our masters - we were directly involved.

    but back to the point, built here would make it one of the best manufacturered cars in the world.
    How so?
    GeorgeBMacmuthuk_vanalingamlolliverargonaut
  • Reply 14 of 57
    JWSC said:

    But with Brexit and horrible unions it’s a no-brainer for Apple to NOT see the U.K. as a good place for an assembly plant.
    The old Unions have been emasculated since the early 80s and are pretty much an irrelevancy so far as manufacturing is concerned.  

    Much more important are rules of origin.  In order to avoid tariff barriers the Apple car would need to contain a fair proportion of components sourced from within the EU and whilst you're doing that you may as well manufacture the whole thing within the EU.  
  • Reply 15 of 57
    JWSCJWSC Posts: 1,203member
    darkpaw said:
    anantksundaram said:

    Brexit certainly didn't hurt its vaccination efforts, considering the disaster that the EU is on that front with its suboptimal common purchasing agreement: the UK leads all major countries of the world, with nearly 20% of its population having got at least one dose. (US is second best -- again among major countries, with ~13%). Plenty of reporting on all this for those interested, so I am not providing cites. 
    This was possible whilst in the EU, and actually, the deals for the vaccines were done whilst in the EU. Brexit has nothing to do with this. We merely authorised the vaccines first and earlier than the EU. From this article:
    Under European law a vaccine must be authorised by the EMA, but individual countries can use an emergency procedure that allows them to distribute a vaccine for temporary use in their domestic market.

    Britain is still subject to those EU rules during the post-Brexit transition period which runs until the end of the year (2020).

    The UK's own medicines regulator, the MHRA, confirmed this in a statement last month.

    And its chief executive, Dr June Raine, said on Wednesday that "we have been able to authorise the supply of this vaccine using provisions under European law, which exist until 1 January".
    So, nothing to do with Brexit.
    Au contraire mon frere, Brexit certainly played its role.  Several E.U. nations such as France and Germany initiated their own negotiations with Astra Zeneca a month or so after the U.K. finalized their deal with the company.  But before they could finalize their deals the European Commission stepped in and said, “Hold up.  We need to be in charge of this at an E.U. level.”  That delayed negotiations by an additional two months.  The U.K. was not constrained in any way.

    And now the E.U. is upset with Astra Zeneca because they are honoring contracts in the order in which they were negotiated and received.  Comical.
    equality72521ionicleJanNLelijahgaderutter
  • Reply 16 of 57
    JWSC said:
    darkpaw said:
    anantksundaram said:

    Brexit certainly didn't hurt its vaccination efforts, considering the disaster that the EU is on that front with its suboptimal common purchasing agreement: the UK leads all major countries of the world, with nearly 20% of its population having got at least one dose. (US is second best -- again among major countries, with ~13%). Plenty of reporting on all this for those interested, so I am not providing cites. 
    This was possible whilst in the EU, and actually, the deals for the vaccines were done whilst in the EU. Brexit has nothing to do with this. We merely authorised the vaccines first and earlier than the EU. From this article:
    Under European law a vaccine must be authorised by the EMA, but individual countries can use an emergency procedure that allows them to distribute a vaccine for temporary use in their domestic market.

    Britain is still subject to those EU rules during the post-Brexit transition period which runs until the end of the year (2020).

    The UK's own medicines regulator, the MHRA, confirmed this in a statement last month.

    And its chief executive, Dr June Raine, said on Wednesday that "we have been able to authorise the supply of this vaccine using provisions under European law, which exist until 1 January".
    So, nothing to do with Brexit.
    Au contraire mon frere, Brexit certainly played its role.  Several E.U. nations such as France and Germany initiated their own negotiations with Astra Zeneca a month or so after the U.K. finalized their deal with the company.  But before they could finalize their deals the European Commission stepped in and said, “Hold up.  We need to be in charge of this at an E.U. level.”  That delayed negotiations by an additional two months.  The U.K. was not constrained in any way.

    And now the E.U. is upset with Astra Zeneca because they are honoring contracts in the order in which they were negotiated and received.  Comical.
    Exactly this. 
    ionicleaderutter
  • Reply 17 of 57
    I’d strongly recommend “The Road To Somewhere” by David Goodhart to 99% of the comment writers in this thread. 
  • Reply 18 of 57
    JWSCJWSC Posts: 1,203member
    blastdoor said:
    darkpaw said:
    Literally, don't do it. Do not do it. The UK is a terrible place to do business. Brexit has destroyed the many to enrich the minuscule few. The Tory governments of the last ten years have ruined us. Build the Apple Car somewhere else. Please.
    Serious question — who is enriched by brexit? 

    My impression has been that it’s bad for everybody, that it’s a collective delusion among older, less educated English (certainly not Scottish) nationalists mourning the long lost empire. 
    Brexit has been popular among all classes of British society outside of London.  It wasn’t just Conservatives who supported it.  Jeremy Corbyn of the Labour Party was conspicuously silent when it came to campaigning for the Remain movement.

    There had been grumblings about the “Polish plumber” taking native English jobs for years.  But many were pushed over the edge by the Arab exodus from Syria in particular.  Angela Merkel of Germany welcomed them with open arms. But a clash of cultures ensued and Britains were watching. I suspect if Angela Merkel had not done that Brexit would have been voted down.
    JanNLelijahg
  • Reply 19 of 57
    GeorgeBMacGeorgeBMac Posts: 11,421member
    blastdoor said:
    darkpaw said:
    Literally, don't do it. Do not do it. The UK is a terrible place to do business. Brexit has destroyed the many to enrich the minuscule few. The Tory governments of the last ten years have ruined us. Build the Apple Car somewhere else. Please.
    Serious question — who is enriched by brexit? 

    My impression has been that it’s bad for everybody, that it’s a collective delusion among older, less educated English (certainly not Scottish) nationalists mourning the long lost empire. 
    Russia

    There's a reason Russia supported Brexit with one of their disinformation campaigns.

    argonaut
  • Reply 20 of 57
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    ionicle said:
    Talking of deluded....

    The UK is a fantastic place to do business, freed from the shakles and opression of the EU, we are free to do as we please, and with a trade deal with the EU the apple car could be built here and sold allover Europe.

    For the record im a 26 year old uni masters degree holder who voted leave, its not just ‘deluded’ or older people.

    im so glad we regained our freedom from the EU. We are now free from restrictions, free from opression, free from daft regulations, and free to do as we please without asking our ‘masters’ in Brussels to permit it.

    but back to the point, built here would make it one of the best manufacturered cars in the world.
    A “26 year-old masters student” who can’t spell “shackles” or “oppression”, doesn’t understand apostrophes, and thinks “manufacturered” is a word …?

    You’re not fooling anyone, friend. 


    edited February 2021 muthuk_vanalingamlolliverlkruppargonaut
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