By Gary S. Vasilash

The UK government has announced a £4.5 billion investment in “strategic manufacturing sectors.” The auto industry will be getting the greatest part of the spend, which will be rolled out over five years, staring in 2025.

Auto gets >£2 billion.

The focus of all of the funding is environmentally oriented, as in zero-emissions vehicles.

While manufacturing isn’t given a whole lot of attention by people who aren’t in some way involved in manufacturing, in the UK it makes up 43% of all exports and employs 2.6 million people. In terms of economic output (as measured by percentage of gross value added), it is third in the UK, following real estate and retail and wholesale.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, said:

“Britain is now the 8th largest manufacturer in the world, recently overtaking France. To build on this success, we are targeting funding to support the sectors where the UK is or could be world-leading.”

While part of this might be sticking it to France, it is clear that there is an understanding that investing in making stuff is important to the economy in the UK.

According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), a trade organization, eight out of 10 cars manufactured in the UK are exported—so if it wants to continue to have that happen, then the manufacturers located in the UK are going to have to produce the types of vehicles that are in demand, which is increasingly (though certainly not entirely) electric.

And getting the wherewithal to produce electric vehicles takes big money, whether measured in pounds or dollars.