SMMT News

SMMT’s weekly round-up, including all the latest news from UK automotive and a message from SMMT’s Chief Executive.

1. DfT announces £5 million for the Clean Vehicle Technology Fund
2. 2014 Queen’s Speech delivered
3. UK car and commercial vehicle registrations rise in May
4. CIPS survey shows upsurge in UK manufacturing
5. Week ahead

1. Council agrees position on lorry sizes
2. World’s largest civilian robotics programme launched
3. Industrial producer prices down in April
4. European Commission sets out proposals to strengthen recovery
5. G7 summit outcome
6. Week ahead

Vauxhall is celebrating 50 years of manufacturing at its Ellesmere Port site in Cheshire. The site, which produces more than 70,000 Vauxhall Astras a year, started manufacturing the Vauxhall Viva on 1 June 1964.

An additional six buyers have confirmed their attendance to SMMT Meet the Buyer 2014, taking the number of OEMs looking to locally-source components to 24. UK automotive supply chain companies are being urged to capitalise on the once-a-year opportunity to expand their business, as the invite-only event approaches.

Bus and coach market declines 22 units in May following April surge, but year-to-date remains up 4.1%. Purpose-built sector falls to 284 units in the month, with year-to-date volumes showing 11.0% drop. Further positivity for converted bus market in both…

Total commercial vehicle registrations rose 12.6% in May to 27,198; rolling year up 14.5% to 337,857. Van demand in May 2014 bounced back from a blip in April, posting 18.4% growth to 24,283 registrations, accelerating the year-to-date margin of +13.3%.

SMMT has published Electric Vehicle (EV) registration figures for May and the year-to-date.

May increase drives UK new car market to 27 consecutive months of growth, breaking record set in the late 1980s. New car registrations increased 7.7% in May to 194,032 units – the most in May since 2004.

This year’s Automechanika Dubai has seen a 19% increase in exhibitors compared to last year. A total of 1,695 exhibitors from nearly 60 countries have attended the international trade show, which opened this week.