Vauxhall must rebuild momentum around its hugely significant new Corsa, having been hit hard by lockdown occurring at the time of the supermini’s launch, according to its boss.
In a recent Autocar Business Live online seminar, Stephen Norman said: “Unfortunately, the lockdown came bang in the middle of the Corsa launch. We were in the midst of launching petrol and diesel versions and, to be frank, the lockdown has suspended our ambition for the brand because of that for at least six months. The lockdown may only have been two or three months, but it has certainly made a dent in the run rate we intended to build up to.”
However, Norman remains positive about Vauxhall, saying it “has a job to do in marketing terms to build [Corsa] demand back up to where it was before lockdown”, and adding that the recently revealed new Mokka SUV would also help its cause. “There’s nothing like a new product to restate your case.”
The state of sales
It’s estimated that about 500,000 cars have been taken out of the market this year, due to Covid-19. Given Vauxhall’s intended 7.5% market share, Norman believes the pandemic has cost the firm 37,500 sales. “That’s the big hit,” he said.
September sales are in line with last year for Vauxhall, so Norman believes it’s the final quarter of the year that will give the best prediction for 2021. “In June, straight after lockdown, we were able to deliver dealer stock that had been primarily ordered before and during lockdown,” he said. “In July and August, we saw very strong demand from customers who were unable to place orders during lockdown and undoubtedly encouraged by government guidelines to use personal transport rather than public transport. In September, we were even-stevens.”
Unemployment in all sectors at the end of the furlough scheme and the impact that could have on vehicle demand is “one of the uncertainties we’ll have to face in Q4 and Q1 of next year,” Norman added.
Ellesmere Port’s future
Despite the massive hit that UK car production has been dealt by the pandemic (it was down 44% year on year in August), Norman categorically stated that the future of Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port factory will be decided by other factors.
“The Ellesmere Port situation isn’t a Covid situation but a situation that has everything to do with the cost of manufacture and the tariff situation which will be ours after 31 December,” he said.
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they should build more in the Uk
If they closed Ellsmere I would say there sales would be shot to s-it and the Brexit scenario could equally be more complicated ,it could be more cars are made in the Uk for home market there is Vauxhall,Citroen and Peugeot all based on same floorpans if you had to pay min 10% duty on imports it would hit the German ,French and Spanish very hardas we import way more than export and if it weere up to me it would be 25% min duty after 3 to 5 years to force onshoring again.
Ski Kid wrote:
...but regardless of whether you could find a big enough domestic market to make it viable to operate an entire assembly plant, you'd need to take into account the components needed for platform assembly may come from outside the UK, therefore incurring tariffs and increasing production costs. If you sourced components directly from the UK for the UK, I'd doubt you'd get the economics to work as the component quantities wouldn't be cost effective, again increasing production costs.
Also, regardless of what happens with tariffs. The UK isn't an attractive place to set up a large scale automotive manufacturing operation. The tariff situation just potentially increases cost risk.
Good to see the optimism
Good to see the optimism regarding the UK plants. During the sale of GM's assets to PSA, the UK operations had some of the highest fixed operational asset costs across GM's european operations. Vauxhall will have to stay agile to keep their UK sites viable, particularly with the uncertainty of tariffs.
Marc wrote:
Unless the UK government does a lot more than it has to date to get a free trade deal with the EU, you can kiss that optimism good bye.
top seller, again
One of the better looking super minis and nice to see visible changes over the last model, unlike say a Fiesta which is basically a 12 year old design now. Corse-e is well ahead of the competion too.
xxxx wrote:
Wow thats a bit rich from a VW fanboy, how old is that Golf design again? The Corsa is a 208 in a Primark frock with a Poundstretchers interior, being sold by Woolworths.. A bit like VAG products really, its probably why you like it.
full of it this morning, volvotiger
VW fanboy, you are joking righ and what VAG has got to do with the corsa I dont know. You are just anti everything apart from Volvo, so wind your neck in and post your anti german, british brands etc hate on some other hate filled forumn.