An urgent topic at tomorrow's Downing Street car summit is whether the national motor industry should abandon any claims to be a volume producer and settle for being a niche builder of premium - and highly profitable - cars.

The debate was sparked by a report in May from consultants AT Kearney which argued that British volume car assembly had no future.

It is a view shared by Wolfgang Reitzle, head of Ford's premier automotive group, who extolled the virtues of building only upmarket luxury cars or specialist vehicles such as Land Rovers (part of his empire). Commerzbank took a similar view in a recent review of the European car scene as a whole, where BMW is by far the star performer.

It is not a view shared by Tony Woodley, TGWU chief car negotiator and the only trade union guest at the summit. For one thing, he can see Jaguar raising its planned annual output from 200,000 in 2004 to 300,000 or more and Land Rover to 250,000. "These are not niche vehicles but a sizeable branded car and I think the future market, like clothing, will be heavily dominated by brands."

Prof Rhys, an economic adviser to MG Rover, says the UK has been the biggest growth centre in Europe for volume car production in the past 10-15 years. "We are advancing on both fronts. We're not simply volume producers like France and Italy but more akin to Germany, which has VW and BMW and Mercedes."

Mr Woodley admits to deep disappointment about the Ford and Vauxhall closures, which take effect early next year, but takes comfort from the re-emergence of Mini, new Land Rover models and even the Rolls-Royce planned for Goodwood. He's even recruiting members in the business parks supplying components just-in-time.