Thursday, December 19, 2013
BVRLA and OLEV explore potential for ultra-low emission fleets
A BVRLA-assembled coalition of fleet representatives has outlined a package of incentives and actions that would help the government kick-start the market for ultra-low emission vehicles.
A workshop comprising of the Energy Saving Trust, the Association of Car Fleet Operators and a range of BVRLA rental, leasing and commercial vehicle members gave advice to the government's Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV). OLEV has a £500m budget earmarked for growing the ultra-low emission vehicle market up to 2020, and is looking to get feedback from across the automotive sector about how to spend it.
The workshop gave OLEV a mini-manifesto of policy suggestions that could together provide the sort of incentive package that has helped drive such a successful ultra-low emission vehicle market in Norway. These included:
- Providing subsidised or free EV parking
- Giving tax incentives for companies to install charging infrastructure
- Introducing an emissions-based AMAP regime
- Ensuring that benefit-in-kind company car tax is charged on the Plug-in Car Grant-inclusive cost of a vehicle, rather than the higher list price
- Reinstating 100% first-year allowances for leased or rented ultra-low emission vehicles.
BVRLA members already own and operate hundreds of plug-in electric and hybrid vehicles and were able to provide real-life examples of where fleets were already using EVs in earnest or had found barriers to adoption.
OLEV was told that more resource needed to be put behind information campaigns and fleet training so that many of the misconceptions around electric vehicles could be corrected.
Delegates said that vehicle manufacturers needed encouragement to put a more comprehensive package of measures behind their ultra-low emission vehicles to support early adopters and ensure that there is a healthy second-hand market for plug-in cars and vans.
"Fleet take-up of ultra-low emission vehicles will be a marathon, not a sprint," said BVRLA Chief Executive, Gerry Keaney.
"With their expertise and buying power, BVRLA members can play a key role in driving this change, provided the government creates the right policy and tax environment."
The BVRLA will distil the input the viewpoints obtained during the workshop and present them to OLEV by early January 2014. OLEV is then due to finalise its proposals and present them to ministers early in March 2014.
"Fleets must be at the forefront of any strategy to stimulate greater adoption of ultra-low emission vehicles in the UK, and the diverse group of road transport users assembled by the BVRLA will help us to formulate our plans," said a Department for Transport spokesperson.
DATED: 19.12.2013
FEED: HA/BVRLA
UK car manufacturing (data for November 2013)
UK car manufacturing nears 1.5 million landmark
- Car production rose 4.5% in first 11 months of year to 1,424,023 units.
- 2013 output set to pass 1.5 million units for first time in six years.
- Preparation for new model production at several UK sites saw November output dip 3.6%.
"With output up 4.5% in 2013 to-date, UK car manufacturing is on track to pass 1.5 million units this year, the best performance since 2007," said Mike Hawes, SMMT Chief Executive. "A number of mass-market manufacturers have this year used November to prepare their production lines for new models, so volumes dropped 3.6% in the month. However, the forthcoming new models will play an integral part in what is predicted to be an even stronger 2014 for UK car manufacturing."
Car manufacturing
|
Nov-12
|
Nov-13
|
% Change
|
YTD-12
|
YTD-13
|
% Change
|
Total
|
142,825
|
137,624
|
-3.6%
|
1,363,166
|
1,424,023
|
4.5%
|
Home
|
21,522
|
21,714
|
0.9%
|
236,099
|
293,292
|
24.2%
|
Export
|
121,303
|
115,910
|
-4.4%
|
1,127,067
|
1,130,731
|
0.3%
|
% export
|
84.9%
|
84.2%
|
82.7%
|
79.4%
|
CV output falls again in November
- Commercial vehicle (CV) output fell 35.7% in November to 7,061 units.
- CV production over the first 11 months of the year down 21.5% to 82,535 units.
- Total CV manufacturing volumes expected to remain subdued until mid-2014.
"Ongoing weak European demand and changes to UK manufacturing operations impacted commercial vehicle production in November," said Mike Hawes, SMMT Chief Executive. "While we expect the downward trend to continue for a few months yet, CV manufacturing in the UK has a solid base from which to build with more than 200 vans, trucks and buses rolling off domestic production lines every day."
CV manufacturing
|
Nov-12
|
Nov-13
|
% Change
|
YTD-12
|
YTD-13
|
% Change
|
Total
|
10,974
|
7,051
|
-35.7%
|
105,188
|
82,535
|
-21.5%
|
Home
|
5,343
|
3,673
|
-31.3%
|
45,005
|
38,747
|
-13.9%
|
Export
|
5,631
|
3,378
|
-40.0%
|
60,183
|
43,788
|
-27.2%
|
% export
|
51.3%
|
47.9%
|
57.2%
|
53.1%
|
Exports fuel strong month for engine production
- Engine manufacturing rose for a third successive month in November, up 3.4% to 231,371 units.
- Output up 2.5% over the year-to-date to 2,404,146 units.
- November rise driven by exports; robust home market performance over year-to-date.
Engine manufacturing
|
Nov-12
|
Nov-13
|
% Change
|
YTD-12
|
YTD-13
|
% Change
|
Total
|
223,853
|
231,371
|
3.4%
|
2,345,167
|
2,404,146
|
2.5%
|
Home
|
91,380
|
90,215
|
-1.3%
|
887,892
|
972,357
|
9.5%
|
Export
|
132,473
|
141,156
|
6.6%
|
1,457,275
|
1,431,789
|
-1.7%
|
% export
|
59.2%
|
61.0%
|
62.1%
|
59.6%
|
DATED: 19.12.2013
FEED: HA/SMMT
Marsh markets DIY finance to dealers
Marsh Finance has begun a campaign marketing itself as a finance partner to dealerships and inviting them to develop their own subprime lending product.
Aimed at car supermarkets and dealer networks, the Rochdale-based finance provider and portfolio manager said it can help dealers turn "hundreds of pounds of finance commission into thousands of pounds of finance interest".
Particularly, Marsh's campaign emphasises the growth of subprime lending, both the increasing number of people in the non-prime demographic and the use of brokers by dealers to expand their panel of non-prime lenders.
Dealers taking up Marsh's offer would set their own scorecard rates and underwriting needs and share the risk with the finance provider. On such a model, Marsh claims it has a net return of 23%, after commission, on finance. At present, its management book stands at £186m of receivables, with an arrears rate of 0.6%.
The framework has most notably been employed of late with the launch of Stoneacre FS the subprime funding arm of the Stoneacre dealer network, headed by Steve Reynolds.
DATED: 19.12.2013
FEED: MF
Advantage Finance backed for more
Advantage Finance has shown continued growth in its customer base since August according to a statement given to the stock exchange by parent company credit firm S&U.
Working to a financial year which ends 31 January, the company said growth reported in September had continued to December.
Intending to make Advantage one of the UK's leading lenders, S&U has put £7m into the non-prime hire purchase operation between February and July this year.
In addition, the motor finance unit has now been given an extra £15m in new banking facilities, in a sign of S&U's confidence in its future.
Investment bank Canaccord said it expect the end-of-year results at S&U to be "impressive" and expects the earnings per share to be 29% higher this year than forecast.
DATED: 19.12.2013
FEED: MF
40% Growth at Alphera FS
Alphera Financial Services, the independent finance provider owned by BMW Group Financial Services, has set a record breaking year in 2013, according to director Andy Gruber.
Alphera has written more business in 2013 than in any other year since the company began in 2006.
Alphera did not provide exact figures but said it had recorded 'double-digit growth over the past 12 months', including 40% growth in the most-recent quarter-year and record breaking monthly figures for each of the last four months of 2013.
Finance askew
Although Alphera operates as finance partner to Aston Martin, with Gruber also over-seeing Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Financial Services since October, the company said the success came despite "downward pressure from captive finance" on the F&I market.
"While we've had a record-breaking year in 2013, following the positive growth curve of new and used car sales, we need to be aware that the F&I market continues to be skewed somewhat by the strong captive support retailers enjoy from manufacturers' artificially low rates of interest," said Gruber.
"We have been successful by working smarter with dealers, helping them to secure sales by developing financial packages that make new or used car ownership affordable to drivers. We've worked hard in 2013, helping dealers to use traditional products such as PCP in new ways; supporting not just new but used car sales with this flexible financial solution. Looking ahead, we can see the market moving further away from the tired, five year, hire purchase model, adopting innovative new acquisition methods that are still financially prudent."
DATED: 19.12.2013
FEED: MF
Tapering is here; this is not a drill
Fed chairman Ben Bernanke has set the wheels in motion to end the US' asset buying programme. Markets have reacted surprisingly gently
It's rather sweet that at his final meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke was able to finish what he started - or at least start to finish what he started - and set the wheels in motion to begin tapering the US' quantitative easing programme.
The choice of language is definitely appropriate - anything dubbed 'tapering' was always going to be gentle, but this is ridiculous: minutes of the meeting show the FOMC voted to ease back its bond-buying programme by a paltry $10bn, from $85bn to $75bn (although Bernanke suggested it was likely to continue next year 'if needed').
What's interesting is how markets responded. When Bernanke back in May, markets everywhere went into out-and-out panic mode. But then someone realised that 'tapering' equals 'US recovery' and over the summer as investors fell over themselves put their cash back into the US.
So when Bernanke made his announcement yesterday, the Dow Jones fell by a mere 0.4%, before surging 1.8% to close at an all time high of 16,167.97.
And in the event, emerging markets were actually pretty relaxed about it: although most currencies in Asia and South America weakened slightly, their governments shrugged it off. Dilma Rousseff, the president of Brazil, whose currency weakened by half a percentage point against the dollar, welcomed the move. And although the Japanese Yen fell to its lowest level against the dollar since 2008, Japan's main share index, the Nikkei 225, was up by more than 1%, as was Australia's ASX 200.
So it looks like Indian finance minister Palaniappan Chidambaram's point that emerging markets are 'better prepared than in May 2013 to deal with the consequences, if any, of the US Federal Reserve’s decisions', is about right. Bernanke gave them time to consider it, and they've reacted just as he had hoped.
The choice of language is definitely appropriate - anything dubbed 'tapering' was always going to be gentle, but this is ridiculous: minutes of the meeting show the FOMC voted to ease back its bond-buying programme by a paltry $10bn, from $85bn to $75bn (although Bernanke suggested it was likely to continue next year 'if needed').
What's interesting is how markets responded. When Bernanke back in May, markets everywhere went into out-and-out panic mode. But then someone realised that 'tapering' equals 'US recovery' and over the summer as investors fell over themselves put their cash back into the US.
So when Bernanke made his announcement yesterday, the Dow Jones fell by a mere 0.4%, before surging 1.8% to close at an all time high of 16,167.97.
And in the event, emerging markets were actually pretty relaxed about it: although most currencies in Asia and South America weakened slightly, their governments shrugged it off. Dilma Rousseff, the president of Brazil, whose currency weakened by half a percentage point against the dollar, welcomed the move. And although the Japanese Yen fell to its lowest level against the dollar since 2008, Japan's main share index, the Nikkei 225, was up by more than 1%, as was Australia's ASX 200.
So it looks like Indian finance minister Palaniappan Chidambaram's point that emerging markets are 'better prepared than in May 2013 to deal with the consequences, if any, of the US Federal Reserve’s decisions', is about right. Bernanke gave them time to consider it, and they've reacted just as he had hoped.
When new, notoriously dovish, Fed chairman Janet Yellen takes over the reins in January, chances are that markets will start trying to second-guess when tapering will increase. It may have been a long time coming, but this is just the beginning. Whether a rise in tapering will yield as measured a response remains to be seen.
DATED: 19.12.2013
FEED: MT
Lamborghini names Gallardo replacement
After months of speculation over the name of Lamborghini’s forthcoming Gallardo replacement, we can exclusively reveal that the new car will be called Bob.
‘We considered many things,’ revealed an anonymous Sant’Agata insider. ‘Other candidates includes Mnamnophilopilopis, which is the Greek god of restricted visibility, and Psetsiotypiosatia, which is a type of mould found on the underneath of bulls. But these names were too hard to pronounce and we have instead sold them to Pagani. The Gallardo replacement is Lamborghini’s most accessible model and it must have an accessible name. That is why we have decided to call it Bob.’
The Lamborghini Bob will be revealed in March and by June it should be in a YouTube video being driven by a 24 year old, roaring about a British city centre and then crashing into a lamp post.
DATED: 19.12.2013
FEED: SP
