SMMT News

Shocking new findings show that a third of motorists have driven a car knowing it has no MOT. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) surveyed 1,000 UK motorists and found that, of those that have driven a car without a valid MOT, 67% admitted driving for up to a week before the retest, 24% for up to a month, 7% for up to six months and 2% for more than six months.

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

More than 40% of new cars registered in July were fitted with digital radio as standard, according to CAP and SMMT data. This figure equates to more than 95,000 digital radio-equipped cars sold last month and shows an increase of 62% compared to July 2012. It continues a period of impressive growth for digital radio, which saw a year-on-year increase of 67% in Q2, with 210,000 units fitted as standard.

Following a consultation with industry, government has announced plans to relax cabotage rules around peak vehicle registration periods. Around 400,000 new cars and vans are registered in both March and September, with the two months collectively accounting for more than a third of the UK’s new vehicle registrations.

Purpose-built bus and coach registrations fell 20.5% to 263 units in July.

Total CV registrations were stable in July at 22,211 (-0.6%) with 177,708 registrations over the year-to-date, a 6.5% rise.

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

SMMT has significantly raised its forecast for 2013 new car registrations, predicting sales will reach 2.216 million units, 8.4% ahead of 2012.

Land Rover is celebrating its commitment to UK manufacturing and the domestic supply chain by exhibiting a selection of vehicles and components at SMMT’s headquarters in Westminster. Starting today and running for two weeks, the exhibition features the all-new Range Rover Sport, best-selling Range Rover Evoque and a number of UK-built components.

The UK automotive industry was highly praised on tonight’s BBC Top Gear, the world’s most popular motoring television programme.