Currently reading: Ford wants trade transition agreement to secure UK investments post-Brexit

If no agreement is made, a transition period is "critical for Ford's investments in the UK"

A Brexit transition agreement will be ‘critical’ to Ford’s British investments if a trade agreement can’t be signed in the next two years, according to the head of its European operation.

Speaking at the FT Future of the Car Summit in London Jim Farley, the CEO and chairman of Ford's Europe, said the firm's UK infrastructure could be affected if the movement of goods from Britain into the European Union is made more difficult following Brexit.

“We believe in a transition period. If an agreement is not done, there should be a transition period, that’s critical for our investments in the UK."

Farley added that Ford expects an agreement between Britain and the EU to be signed, but cautioned: "Eighteen months is not much time in which to do a deal.

Farley also talked about issues including the free movement of people, the Customs Union and the flow of trade across the UK/EU border in future. Farley raised concerns about the potential for what he termed 'friction loss' at the UK border. "It means more trucks, cash trapped and time lost," he said.

Leading EU automotive bodies warn of potential Brexit damage

Ford is now "spending a lot of time" trying to work out solutions to the problems of how to organsie its logistics post-Brexit. “There is a lot to do, but we have to be very ambitious, we are optimistic,” he said.

Brexit: EU single market is ‘critical’ to UK automotive sector

Further mobility developments predicted

While speaking at the Future of the Car Summit, Farley also talked about the future of autonomous driving. He predicted major breakthroughs would come in a second-wave of developments, which he termed "mobility 2.0".

“Now we’re in mobility 1.0. What’s exciting is 2.0 when the car is totally integrated into the city system," he said.

Farley drew parallels between the development of smartphone technology, in which the first wave of hardware was followed by a second wave of applications and commerce development that delivered the real benefits of the technology.

"We're already learning what mobility 2.0 will look like," he said. "Multimedia will become important. And one of the answers to the challenges is collaboration between Ford and the city," he said.

Farley also raised the possibility of a new mobility internet portal, emerging alongside Google and Facebook. He said: "What’s the Google search for mobility? It might not be Google or Facebook."

Advertisement

Read our review

Car review

The new Ford GT is technically wonderful, brilliant to drive, and to be admired because it’s a £420,000 supercar from the people who usually bring you Fiestas

Join the debate

Comments
18
Add a comment…
Ski Kid 10 May 2017

the Eu would be in such a mess and panic

the Eu probably would not get round to charging the same rate as us but anyway we import way more so would so they will have to pay extra to have a share of our market.The Uk is being fleeced by all and sundry.
jagdavey 10 May 2017

Ford will never build cars in the UK again

Ford will always look after it's own interests, & never looks after its workers like French & German companies do!!!
Jim Farley is only concerned about being able to sell the German built Fiesta's & Focuses in the UK without import tariffs.
If there's an Hard Brexit he will almost certainly close Bridgend, Dagenham & Dunton, ship all the Engine production to Rumania, & be forced to import all those cars from extra low cost India or even the US. As a result factories in the EU, Cologne for example, will be running at below 50% capacity.
NavalReserve 10 May 2017

@SkiKid: Ford will need to build some new factories in the uk

"Personally I think the worst case scenario should be a minimum 30% import tariff on imported goods from the EU ,"

The EU will respond with a tit-for-tat tariff of 30% on UK exports.

As Nissan export 82% of their production from Sunderland to the UK, this could be tricky for employment there....

NavalReserve 10 May 2017

@SkiKid: Ford will need to build some new factories in the uk

Sorry! Nissan export 82% of UK production to the EU (at the moment!)