Britain owes Nissan of Japan a long-overdue thank you – for being the largest car producer we have in the UK. If you drive south from the firm’s impressive Sunderland factory to its Rickmansworth head office, it takes about five hours. Yet a multi-country car journey – including the sea crossing – from Dover to Selfkant in Germany’s western quarter is 20 miles shorter. As the crow flies, it’s less than 200 miles between the deep south of Britain and Germany’s most westerly point. Germany has succeeded the US as the western world’s most successful and productive car-making nation.