Overview
- SMMT, which pressed its case in Brussels on Thursday, asked for a political pledge that UK-made cars will qualify as Made in EU.
- The proposed Industrial Accelerator Act ties public purchasing and subsidies to Made in EU rules and low-carbon criteria across sectors like EVs and batteries.
- An automotive annex that requires final assembly inside the EU could leave UK-built vehicles and parts outside grants, company car tax breaks, and CO2 super credits.
- The stakes include about €80bn in annual UK–EU auto trade and €9.1bn a year of EU components shipped to Britain, with corporate fleets buying roughly 60% of new cars.
- Adoption could take at least a year and the list of trusted partners comes only after that, which deepens near-term uncertainty as Chinese EVs reach about 7% of EU sales.