As the world’s leading car executives gathered this week at the Paris Motor Show, their attention was fixed 200 miles to the north, and the tunnel that connects France to the UK.
The UK’s car plants are inexorably linked to the continent.
More than half of exports — about 40 per cent of total production — travel to Europe, while parts suppliers across the continent supply more than half the components that go into cars built in the UK.
Many of Britain’s top investors — Nissan, Toyota, Honda — located plants in the country because of its position as a gateway to Europe. Now, with six months to go until Brexit and the chances of a dreaded no-deal outcome rising, that gateway looks to be closing.