Conclusions

Abstract

The process of globalisation in the automotive industry at the level of the vehicle assemblers has been accompanied by major new capacity additions within the EC. Much, though not all, of this new capacity has been established in locations which lack an extensive history of automotive manufacture. Plants such as Nissan in Sunderland and Toyota in Bumeston (both UK), VW-Ford in Setubal (Portugal), BMW in Regensburg (Germany) all, to varying degrees, drew on workforces unused to vehicle assembly. On the other hand, there has been some new investment into established automotive localities, such as the latest Seat plant in Barcelona or the GM engine plant in Germany. Globalisation at the level of the vehicle assemblers has also been accompanied by industrial concentration, of which the Renault-Volvo merger of 1993 is perhaps the most conspicuous evidence. The arrival of Japanese transplant assembly operations in Europe has also provided a destabilising force in that some firms have been ‘winners’ in getting new contracts, but many others have been ‘losers’ in not doing so. Equally, the new Japanese transplants, together with the new investments of existing European firms, have been one of the features underpinning spatial restructuring in the automotive components industry.