UK Automobile Industry
1. Wikipedia :
Primary categories : Sports and luxury end cars – Aston Martin, Bentley, Daimler, Jaguar, Rolls-Royce etc
Volume Car Makers – Nissan, Honda, Toyota etc
Commercial Manufacturers – Ford, Leyland, London Taxis International etc
Back in 1950 , UK was the second largest car manufacturer and exporter after USA. Subsequently over some decades slowed down and was then ranked on the 12th spot with immense competition from nations like France, Germany and Japan\. Late 80’s many of the British marques were bought over by foreign companies
2. http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-2524573/Can-motor-industry-continue-fifth-gear-race-ahead-2014.html The latest UK car manufacturing figures showed that 1,286,287 motors were produced in the first 11 months of the year, a rise of 5.4 per cent compared to last year with sales also up by an impressive 9.9 per cent.
Of the five major European car markets – Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain – only Britain has seen growth in the new car market this year.
The rate of growth depends principally on when the car manufacturers pull back on the cheap credit that is currently pump-priming the market.
If this cheap credit remains available throughout next year then there is an increasing risk of oversupply of new cars which could raise anxiety regarding a potential shock fall in used car residual values.’

Political

Economic
Payment Protection insurance payouts
Cheap financing
The rate of growth depends principally on when the car manufacturers pull back on the cheap credit that is currently pump-priming the market
If this cheap credit remains available throughout next year then there is an increasing risk of oversupply of new cars which could raise anxiety regarding a potential shock fall in used car residual values

Bank of England base rate will only increase as wider consumer confidence returns and as the rest of the EU begins to turn the corner with respect to demand, the need for manufacturers to offer incentives into the UK market will diminish.

Socio Cultural

Car sales boom creating thousands of jobs

Technological
New self-driving features will be deployed in executive cars such as "traffic-jam assist" which will see cars driving themselves in low speed traffic jams

Enthu for electric cars failed in 2013 but may ignite with range extended battery powered cars like BMWi3
Driverless car technology
Environmental

Legal

3 major trends affecting car manufacture in mature markets :
1. Fragmentation of mature markets : customer demanding more choice, this made it difficult for manufacturers to implement economies of scale- so costs had to be reduced
2. Companies were sharing production costs
3. Reliance on platforms – basic structure common to several models which could then be varied with different styling, engine features etc
Factors affecting the future of automobile plants :
1. Flexibility – age of the plant and scope of rebuilding it, whether production lines are adapted to a platform approach or single model only
2. Relationship to the plant – only does assembly or produces components also
3. Labour and energy costs
4. Productivity rates, labour flexibility and skills
5. Influence of exchange rates on competitiveness
6. Scalability of plants to accommodate modern equipments and techniques and upgrading facilities
7. Supply chain