THE report that new electric Mini production may take place in Germany rather than in Oxford exemplifies the threat Brexit presents to the entire car industry.

Greens in Oxford have been calling for all electric production at BMW Cowley since 2014.

We recognise the dramatic growth of electric car usage and its positive implications for reducing the air pollution which plagues UK urban areas, including Oxford.

We should follow Norway, where 37 per cent of cars sold this January were electric and where the expectation is that all cars in the country will be electric within eight years.

The 3,500 electric cars on UK roads in 2013 has now risen to about 90,000. This is a phenomenal increase.

There is, however, no guarantee that vehicle manufacturers will remain in the UK unless we remain inside the Single Market.

Many parts for vehicles are imported into the UK from other countries so new adverse tariff arrangements will raise issues about the viability of all car manufacturing in the UK.

BMW’s 4500 workers, and all those who work in supply chain industries linked to the Oxford plant, deserve better answers from Government when it seems to be suggesting that Single Market membership is impossible because it includes freedom of movement of people within the EU.

Imagine the effects of a bad deal with the EU on the motor vehicle industry as a whole.

There are over 161,000 people directly employed in the motor vehicle manufacturing industry and about 78,000 employed in related supply chain industries in the UK.

This industry produces about £34bn of exports which is about 11 per cent of the UK’s total exports.

Just how many of these jobs do we want to lose if we cannot retain membership of the Single Market?

STEVE DAWE County press officer, Oxfordshire Green Party