Has Tesla hastened the death of Britain’s electric car revolution?

Analysis: On current trends it seems unlikely that a significant proportion of the electric cars sold in Europe will be made in the UK when the market finally takes off, says Sean O'Grady

A Tesla Model 3 on display earlier this year (EPA)

The announcement by boss Elon Musk that Tesla will build its gigabyte electric-battery plant (and prospective car factory) in Germany rather than Britain is the strongest evidence yet that what was once a most promising future for the British car industry is is now, realistically over – and mostly thanks to Brexit.

For Musk himself, in his usual direct way has made plain that the UK’s planned departure from the EU is the deciding factor. With it will go many jobs that would otherwise be created, high-paid work generating tax revenues and export earnings – all the way through the supply chain. Tesla would, for example, have been a handy new customer for British Steel.

It is an example of the mainly invisible losses Brexit will entail. Rather than being able to point to piles of rubble where once factories and office blocks stood, now bulldozed because of Brexit – and there will be some of those – the real costs is in the new sites that were never built or developed. In other words the contributors to economic growth that would have been there if the UK has remained inside the single market and customs union of the largest economic bloc on the planet.