Wales’ largest dealer groups, Days, saw its turnover rise but pre-tax profit fall last year.
Companies House accounts for the year ended December 31, 2023, show the new and used cars business with 18,000 strong rental fleet, and one of the Car Dealer Top 100, reported an 11% increase in turnover from £257.774m to £285.195m but its profit before tax sank from £33.29m to £30.734m – an 8% drop and group chairman Graham Day said it had faced a tough trading period with rising costs, war in Europe and environmental concerns as well as other factors.
Welsh Conservatives will tomorrow call on the Senedd to debate a motion for a bypass around Chepstow.
The scheme has been given the thumbs up by the UK-Government and Gloucs. council as it straddles the English border, but Welsh Government has not committed to the project.
SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes has been awarded an OBE in this year’s King’s Birthday Honours.
Hawes joined the trade body as CEO in 2013 after a number of years in the automotive sector in the UK and abroad, received the honour for services to the automotive industry.
A consultation is underway into proposals for a battery energy storage system which could supply the electricity needs of more than 72,000 homes.
RWE has launched a pre-application consultation for the scheme, which would form part of its decarbonisation hub, Pembroke Net Zero Centre on a 5.1 hectare area south of Pembroke Power Station.
Labour will reinstate the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel vehicles should it win the election on July 4 after the Conservative Government eased it back to 2035.
Labour added that it would be helping used car buyers by ‘standardising the information supplied on the condition of batteries’ in used models and also wanted to increase the roll-out of chargepoints.
Logistics UK has endorsed the Labour pledge to fix a million potholes but said the work nees to be done swiftly.
The trade body said in a statement, “It is vital that the next government, whoever is elected, provides a longer-term strategy and funding model to reinforce the UK’s transport infrastructure. This would enable long-term maintenance programmes to be put in place, rather than piecemeal allocations of funding that create a stop-start mentality and interruptions to the transport network.”
Geely has expressed “great disappointment” in the European Union’s decision to increase tariffs on Chinese made electric vehicles, vowing “all necessary measures” to safeguard its legitimate rights.
Geely would be subject to a 20% additional duty rate from next month as Brussels decided on additional tariffs ranging from 17.4% for BYD to 38.1% for SAIC on top of the existing 10% car duty, the report added.
The NIO EL8 is another Chinese model destined for Britain.
The company has outlined EU sales plan but not yet confirmed when or how it will market the range in the UK.
Research reveals that Tesla drivers are the cleanest motorists on the road, washing their vehicles more than twice a week on average.
Other car-proud drivers include owners of brands such as Honda, BMW, Mercedes and Toyota – while at the other end of the scale, Ford, Vauxhall and Nissan owners clean their cars the least, according to a poll by Scrap Car Comparison.
