Michelin becomes world’s most valuable tyre brand
The Michelin brand’s value has grown some 30 per cent to US$7.9 billion in the latest Brand Finance Tyres 10 ranking. As a result Bibendum is now the world’s most valuable tyre brand.
Continue ReadingMotorcycle sales up in February, scooter sales drop
The Motor Cycle Industry Association is encouraged by the small rise in demand for motorcycles, though with the caveat that scooter registrations have declined. “Demand for motorcycles in February was up 1.2 per cent on the same period last year, registering 3943 units. However, scooter registrations were down -2.1 per cent,” said Stephen Latham, head of the National Motorcycle Dealers Association (NMDA), which represents motorcycle retailers across the UK.
Continue ReadingContinental: Growth in sales, income in 2017
Preliminary figures for Continental’s 2017 financial year were presented today and show an 8.5 per cent growth in sales, to 44 billion euros, and an EBIT margin of 10.9 per cent. With these two figures, the tyre maker and technology provider states that it surpassed its targets for the year. Net income increased 6.5 per cent year-on-year to 3 billion, which equates to earnings of 14.92 euros per share.
Continue ReadingMichelin the number one consumer researched tyre brand: Tyre Reviews
Consumers are increasingly likely to research their tyres online pre-purchase, regardless of whether they complete an e-commerce transaction. Peer review website Tyre Reviews has therefore become an influential destination in the car tyre market: discussing Tyre Reviews’s audience, owner, Jonathan Benson, states that 94 per cent of Tyre Reviews visitors are engaged in the tyre buying process, with its users predominantly “high earning, well educated, male automotive enthusiasts looking for the best possible product for their vehicle.” In 2017, the site delivered 25 million pageviews to tyre buyers, and claims to have influenced around “one-sixth of UK tyre sales.”
Continue ReadingSlight decline in January LCV sales
The UK’s new light commercial vehicle (LCV) market fell -4.2 per cent in January 2018, according to the latest figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). The decline amounts to just 888 fewer vans being driven off forecourts in the first month of the year, compared with 2017.
Continue ReadingJanuary motorcycle sales – all sectors show growth
The latest figures released by the Motor Cycle Industry Association have shown an increase in demand for motorcycles, but it is not time to get carried away by this apparent success, according to the National Motorcycle Dealers Association (NMDA). “Demand for motorcycles in January was up 11.8 per cent on the same period last year, registering 5,458 units. However, this was expected as last year the market was flooded with a high volume of pre-registered bikes for sale,” said Stephen Latham, head of the NMDA.
Continue ReadingJanuary new car sales down -6.3 per cent
The UK new car market declined in the first month of the year, according to figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). 163,615 cars were driven off forecourts in January, a -6.3 per cent fall compared with the same month in 2017.
Continue ReadingCar tyre market growing in [rim] size
The car tyre market is growing in size – at least in terms of rim diameter. According to the latest UK car tyre market sell-out data produced by market research specialists GfK, 39 per cent of market is now made up of 17-inch and larger rim diameter products. And what’s more the trend points to continued growth. The GfK Point of Sales Tracking data compares figures from January to December 2016 with those from January 2017 to December 2017 in order to produce the comparisons published here.
Continue ReadingNMDA expects ‘challenging’ year for bike sales
The National Motorcycle Dealers Association (NMDA) which represents motorcycle retailers across the UK, is expecting 2018 to be a challenging year for the motorcycle industry. The association has carried out extensive economic research in order to estimate the size of the foreseeable market for this year, taking into account the strong global economy which has a predicted growth of 3.9 per cent in 2018, and the sterling which is back to its pre-Brexit strength of $1.40.
Continue ReadingCar tyre prices recover in 2017, but still catching up
A year after we predicted that car tyre prices would rise during 2017 as part of last year’s car tyre feature, the latest data provided by tyre market research specialists Encircle Marketing shows that prices are indeed recovering. However, while tyre prices recovered to 2016 levels during 2017, there is still some way to go before average prices reach 2015 levels. Encircle’s latest figures examine the shape of the traditional tyre retail market and the online tyre market.
Continue ReadingEuropean new car sales hit 10-year high, UK declining quickly
In 2017, new passenger car registrations experienced an increase of +3.4 per cent on the year before. This marked four consecutive years of growth and the best result since 2007 when 16 million units were registered. Registrations rose in the majority of the largest EU markets: Italy (+7.9 per cent) and Spain (+7.7 per cent) were followed by France (+4.7 per cent) and Germany (+2.7 per cent). In the UK the market declined by -5.7 per cent.
Continue ReadingFuel mix to become more important remarketing issue in 2018, says VRA
The balance of stocking diesel, petrol, hybrid and alternative fuel used cars is set to become a more important issue for dealers over the course of 2018, says the Vehicle Remarketing Association. The trade body, which represents members that are involved in the remarketing of more than 1.5m vehicles per year in total, says that the process is likely to be relatively measured but also unavoidable.
Continue ReadingBacklash against diesels sees new car CO2 emissions rise
An anti-diesel agenda has resulted in new car carbon dioxide emissions rising for the first time in 14 years as people make the switch to petrol, recent research suggests. Department for Transport figures show that the average new car sold in 2017 produces more CO2 than one sold in 2016, reversing a continuous decline in emissions of the greenhouse gas since the figures were first published by the Government in 2003.
Continue ReadingLCV sales end 2017 on a high
In 2017 the light commercial vehicle market was more resilient than expected with a modest decline of -3.6 per cent on last year. A total of 362,149 units were registered, which equates to only 13,538 vehicles less than the previous year.
Continue ReadingMotorcycle sales down for 11th month running
According to figures from the Motor Cycle Industry Association registrations in November fell by -17.7 per cent compared to the same period in 2016. Year-to-date decline stood at -15.7 per cent. In total, 6,288 bikes were registered in the month.
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