Hopes are rising that GM Europe will soon announce a 'reprieve' for its Ellesmere Port plant, after gaining support from the UK government on new model launches and supply chain efficiencies as well as concessions from workers on wages and flexible working.

GM Europe had earlier announced it was looking to cut up to 400,000 units of capacity a year from its European operations from 2014 (when its current deal with unions expires), with the firm suggesting that Ellesmere Port and Bochum in Germany were the most vulnerable.

That enabled the firm to kick off a fresh round of its well-honed divide-and-rule strategy, pitting plants and governments against each other in a bidding war to offer the most concessions to the firm. It's a typical feature of the auto industry, controlled as it is a in a top-down way by giant, mobile 'original equipment manufacturers' (OEMs) keen to screw down costs by playing off sites against each other.

While some media reports last week whipped up talk of plant closures being announced by GM, we shouldn't have expected to hear any specific news about actual plant closures. Rather, it was the start of a process that involves three key elements as GM attempts to reduce its costs.

Those elements are: 1. capacity reduction (closing plants to you and me); 2. shifting production outside of western Europe; and 3. playing plants and workers off against each other to secure cost reductions even in those plants remaining open.

There were mixed reports today on what is unfolding in GM Europe. One set of reports suggests that the outlines of a cost-cutting plan could be presented to GM Europe's board next Wednesday, while others suggest this is premature.

What seems clear is that GM Europe is looking to take out around a third of its 1.5 million units of capacity in Europe, and that may well involve the closure of two assembly plants - although CEO Karl-Friedrich Stracke recently stated that he would honour a two-year old agreement not to shut any plans before the end of 2014.

He also stated that the firm's plants were operating at only 80 percent capacity (some would say even lower). Such spare capacity is a killer for the industry as it means a failure to achieve economies of scale in assembly, meaning higher costs.

Is Tata about to float JLR? That's the question that a few readers have been asking me after a recent report by Reuters in India and similar suggestion by The Economic Times.

JLR, remember, contributed a whopping 95% of the overall profit of Tata Motors in the last quarter. The reports suggest that a minority listing for JLR would enable Tata to bank a decent profit on the $2.3 billion purchase price that Tata paid for JLR back in 2008.

With no replacement yet found for the CEO of Tata Motors, who stepped down last September, the view in such pieces is that instead of searching for synergies, Tata could split JLR out and sell off a minority of its shares through an initial public offering (IPO). That could raise cash and help Tata pare down its $4 billion debt.

In addition, a stock market listing would not mean JLR severing its Indian links as Tata would remain the majority owner, and JLR could still look to expand sales and assembly in India.

With a shrinking share of a falling European market, GM Europe recently posted another big loss, even while its parent company reported an $8 billion profit. The scale of the loss has again focused attention at GM on its loss-making European operations after more pressure from shareholders.

A new management team at GM Europe was parachuted in by GM head office last Autumn, led by GM Vice President Steve Girsky. Girsky is very much GM CEO Dan Akerson's man, brought in by Akerson to sort out its ailing European arm.

Interestingly, Girsky was one of the GM directors who voted to reverse the previously planned GM Europe sell-off and keep it back in 2009, but has also referred to the need to reduce GM Europe's break-even point (meaning, effectively big capacity cuts).

And GM is indeed looking at the possibility of capacity and job cuts. Dan Ammann, GM's chief financial officer, said the latest losses at GM Europe were unacceptable and that GM was working "rapidly and decisively" to reduce the break-even rate. "We expect to have something to say soon," he stated this week ominously.

Last year was widely seen as the first year of the 'new electric car era'.

The first volume electric cars were launched in the form of the Chevvy Volt and the Nissan Leaf, and these dominated the headlines at the major auto shows.

'Electric power is the future' - that's if you believed Renault/Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn who kept saying that electric cars will make up 10% of sales by 2020.

Many readers will be aware of the oft-cited figure that over a million jobs were lost in manufacturing under the last Labour government. A number of factors came together to accelerate and extend a 'natural' process of deindustrialisation so that even 'healthy' manufacturing activities were lost.

I've been arguing for ages, for example, that the over-valuation of sterling over the late 1990s and early 2000s hammered our export sectors - and put a huge dent in our automotive and transport clusters here in the midlands. In so doing it seriously unbalanced our economy and contributed to the later problems experienced when financial services went belly up.

Today's unemployment figures give us all cause for concern and there is certainly little to be currently optimistic about.

For those of us who have been around for a while and can remember the 1970s we know that even in the bleakest of times there is always hope of change.
The trouble is, there is a great deal to fear.

Our economy is 'flat-lining' and the historically low period of phenomenally low interest rates has simply kept things from getting worse.

We can only hope that events in Greece do not lead to another spectacular crisis of finance which will impact on all of us and, of course, make recovery even harder.

So, what can realistically be done to create the success our economy desperately needs to achieve an export-led recovery?

New car registrations in the UK fell by 4.4% in 2011 to 1.94 million unts, according to figures released today by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

The market was affected partiucarly by private registrations, down 14.1% for the year while fleet sales rose 4.7% for the period. Sales in December fell by 3.7%, the 10th monthly year-on-year decline of 2011.

The Ford Fiesta was the best selling new car in 2011, with the VW Golf the best selling diesel model. The Super Mini segment remains the largest in the UK, with its market share unchanged on 2010 at just over one-third of the market. The Executive, Luxury Saloon and Dual Purpose segments all recorded growth in registrations in 2011.

The fall in registrations comes as no surprise given a flatlining economy and austerity in the UK. With consumer confidence dented, people are less willing to spend money on big ticket items like cars.

Nissan's Sunderland plant has just recorded its busiest year ever, with some over 480,000 units manufactured, of which over 80% were exported. It was a remarkable success story. Output was up from 423,262 in 2010 (the previous record year) and 338,150 units in 2009.

If I've got my historical analysis correct, this is the biggest output by any single plant in the history of the UK car industry. Not surprisingly, the plant has become hugely important for the UK industry: over 1-in-3 cars produced in the UK in 2011 came from the plant, and it has been the biggest producer since 1998.

Nissan was the first Japanese car manufacturer to set up assmbly operations in the UK when it arrived in 1986. It now employs almost 5,500 staff and is currently developing a new battery production factory at the site.