Auto industry evaluates its future outside the EU single market

Auto industry evaluates its future outside the EU single market

As Britain prepares for its life outside Europe's single market, leaders from the auto industry are evaluating their future in the country. Much will depend on how the border is managed and whether delays caused by customs checks turn out to be a temporary or recurring factor.The owner of a group of UK car part factories has told Euronews that he's preparing to open a new factory in Slovakia so he can continue to serve customers on the other side of what he called 'The Brexit Curtain.'Since the Brexit vote, the number of people working at two UK factories owned by the Goodfish Group has fallen by a third."Twelve months after the vote we began to see a drop off in work here for a Japanese customer of ours, based in the UK, who moved production to the Czech Republic fairly quickly," says Goodfish Group Chief Executive Greg McDonald. "And we saw a gradual tail off in that side of our business and we shut it down 18 months ago."The European auto industry is dependent on parts moving from factory to factory, across open borders, with nothing to delay them. Something which in Britain will stop when border controls start