IRELAND’S FOREMOST FLEET & CORPORATE SECTOR GUIDE NEWS II | 7
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Volume 21. No. 4 Autumn 2024 Edited by Cathal Doyle - cathal@fleet.ie
Latest ACEA Guide on automotive industry published
ACEA, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, has published the latest edition of its essential fact book for everything related to the automobile industry in 2024. The Automobile Industry Pocket Guide 2024/2025, an 83 page fact book covering all aspects of the motor industry, is available for free download via ACEA’s website at https://www.acea. auto/publication/the-automobile-industry-pocket-guide-2024-2025/ Featuring all the latest data on employment, production and sales, trade flows, vehicles on roads, road safety, environmental impact, innovation, and
taxation, the Pocket Guide is a useful and in many case essential tool for anyone working in or involved with the European motoring industry. Among the information revealed in the latest edition is that despite ever increasing competition from outside markets, EU vehicular exports outstripped imports, generating a trade surplus growth of 5%. EU car production jumped in 2023 to nearly 15 million vehicles – almost two million more than the previous year - while commercial vehicle production also increased by 20%. This marks the fastest growth in the past decade. The Guide also highlights the EU
region’s record in improving road safety, with the average number of EU road fatalities having plummeted by around a quarter since 2012. Globally road fatalities have fallen since the last edition of the Pocket Guide. “The ACEA Pocket Guide underlies why it is so important to ensure critical industries like ours are allowed to thrive by investing and trading freely. A holistic and coordinated industrial strategy that exceeds other regions’ ambitions and puts in place the right conditions for competitiveness matters,” said ACEA Director General Sigrid de Vries in her foreword to the Guide. “Whether it’s trade, investment, road safety, employment and beyond, our industry touches so many facets of our everyday lives – allowing businesses to grow and keep society on the move.”
Over one third of vans used solely for leisure, survey finds A survey in the UK has revealed that increasingly motorists are buying vans for personal and general leisure use rather than for business purposes. The research by The Green Insurer found that currently more than a third (36%) of van owners aged 25 to 34 said that they are using their vehicles solely for social, domestic and leisure purposes. Three in 10 (29%) said that they used their vans for both work and leisure, while 35% admitted they used it only for their business. The survey also identified that
drivers of all ages, and both males and females, are open to owning vans – around one in 12 (8%) of the motorists surveyed said they are considering purchasing a van as an alternative to a car. Around 7% of women said they were considering vans compared with 8% of men. Vans’ ability to carry large items such as surfboards or camping equipment was cited by 71% of respondents as one
of their top three reasons for choosing a van over a car. This was followed by a van’s versatility to be used for both work and family leisure activities (54%), the ability to carry more people (49%); and the flexibility afforded by a van to adapt the interior space in terms of seating or large object storage (41%).