According to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), new car registrations across the EU expanded 12.8% in December 2022, the fifth consecutive month of growth during the year. Despite this positive result, only two of the region’s four major markets recorded growth. UK registrations – counted separately from EU figures – grew 18.3% year-on-year in December, to 128,462 units.
Grey is officially the nation’s favourite new car ‘colour’ for the fifth year in a row, with the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) reporting that 25.7 per cent of UK buyers chose the shade in 2022. Some 415,199 grey cars were registered last year, up 1.7 per cent, while black and white took second and third place overall, completing a monochrome podium.
The UK new bus and coach market fell by 19.8 per cent in the third quarter of 2021. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) calls this result “a deeply disappointing decline following a 2020 performance devastated by Covid.”
Registrations of new heavy goods vehicles (HGV) declined 8.4 per cent in the third quarter of 2021. According to figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), the decrease saw 7,715 trucks registered, some 704 fewer than the Q3 2020 total, which itself was volatile due to the effects of the pandemic. It was also down 9.8 per cent on a particularly weak pre-pandemic total in 2019, which saw orders pulled forward into the second quarter of the year ahead of the introduction of new smart tachograph regulations.
The UK new bus and coach market grew by 231.1 per cent in the second quarter after a near standstill in 2020, reports the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). But although all vehicle types saw double- and even triple-digit increases on 2020, the market remains subdued.
DVLA chiefs have agreed to talk to classic and historic vehicle sector leaders in a bid to solve long-running problems over vehicle registrations. Agency Chief Executive Julie Lennard told MPs she would be ‘very happy’ to explore closer engagement with the industry in order to resolve disputes and improve relations.
It isn’t news to say that the tyre and autocentre sector is becoming an increasingly technological business. However, two recent trends confirm the need for garages to be properly equipped – increasing electric vehicle take-up and, in the short term, booming MOT demand.
This article, including a chart to support the analysis, appears in full in the November edition of Tyres & Accessories magazine. Not yet a subscriber? You can change that here.
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S. Hermann & F. Richter; Pixabay