CEO Update

This week saw SMMT host its annual International Automotive Summit, with a packed agenda of speakers that made for an informative, entertaining and productive day. Brexit dominated discussion, as expected, but there was a firm belief that UK Automotive could…

This week SMMT was at the launch of the London EV Infrastructure Delivery Plan, put together via a multi-stakeholder Task Force, with SMMT playing a key role representing UK Automotive in the discussions. We share the mayor’s vision for a…

Our 2019 Future Mobility Challenge has officially been launched, which sees start-ups, scale-ups and SMEs getting the chance to present their innovations and ideas to five household automotive brands. We’ve come up with eight mobility challenges that need addressing, and…

We enjoyed a period of huge success in the years following the global financial crisis, but yesterday’s announcement by Ford that it proposes to close its Bridgend plant is another crushing blow for UK automotive manufacturing and, especially, the staff…

This week we revealed manufacturing figures for April that seemed to take everyone – except the industry – by surprise, with a -44.5% drop in British-built cars compared with April 2018. The severity of the fall was primarily due to…

This week saw our 40th anniversary Test Day event take place at Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire. The event was started in 1979 as an opportunity for manufacturers to meet with journalists and allow them to sample the full range…

Good news this week came in the form of fresh government funding worth £28 million to support the development of battery technology at the new Coventry Battery Industrialisation Centre, targeted as a centre of excellence, creating highly skilled jobs and…

Registration figures for April were published this week, showing a -4.1% drop over the 2018 numbers, with private and business purchases down but fleet registrations propping up the month’s total with a 2.9% boost. Clearly there is still uncertainty in…

This week we launched our new Van Report at CV Show 2019 in Birmingham. The report highlights the importance of the UK’s light commercial vehicles not just to our economy but to the one in 10 of UK workers who…

The CV Show 2019 opens at the NEC next week, with thousands of visitors registered to attend the UK’s largest commercial vehicle show. It’s no wonder that the event will feature world-first industry launches, because the country remains a vital…