UK CV Production : 2012-22

The production of commercial vehicles in the UK is the best going back to 2012. What's not to like? Well, the fact that historically, the volume is poor. Going back to 1945, 122,500 units were made and it grew from there. The peak was in 1969 when nearly 466,000 CVs were made. 2020 heralded a low point. Now the numbers are returning. It sounds like a wildlife programme for an endangered species. Maybe an apt comparison.

Two fairly recent negatives were the ending of the Vauxhall Astra van in 2012 and a year later Ford ended UK Transit production. Leading up to their demise, neither was made in prolific numbers but for an already limited industry it was felt.

In better news, Stellantis has made a commitment to van production in the UK although car manufacturing for the firm is going altogether. That is no doubt helping but without a breakdown of production by brand it's speculating as to which company is doing what. LVEC is growing but as for the likes of Leyland DAF trucks and Alexander Dennis buses, I lack recent data. 

For 2022 40% of the volume is for the local market, but that tends to fluctuate. It was nearly 50% a year previous. The overall CV assembly industry is tiny but at least it is moving in a positive direction.

Data source: SMMT.

Toyota/Lexus Sales : 2020-22

The information below comes from Toyota and I could have added many other countries but stuck with what was provided. Company data is rarely if ever the same as what is available from each country anyway. The only exception is India was added by Toyota for 2022 and I put in rounded figures for the previous two years. 

Asia: About half of all sales are from this region, 48.2% to be precise. China and Japan make up 70% of that region. 

North America: The biggest market for Toyota/Lexus is the USA and the region accounted for slightly in excess of a quarter of total sales.

Europe: An area Toyota would like to be more successful in and is working on that. Its effort is being hampered by Germany. The largest market in Europe it may be but paltry sales and penetration put it a miserable fifth in the region. 

Oceania, ME & Africa: Almost the size of Europe thanks in part to Toyota's success in the GCC region, a union of  Gulf states. Australia and South Africa are also strong markets for the company. I added NZ from my own data, so it's not Toyota supplied. 

Latin America: An area Toyota has been playing catch up and doing so effectively. Small in the overall scheme of things but Toyota is nothing if not thorough.

Data source: Toyota.

Nissan/Infiniti Prod & Sales : 2021-22

How did Nissan do in '22? With all the issues going on with supply and increased costs, some manufacturers have been affected worse than others. Production was down 9% and sales -21%. 

Below we see the share of total Nissan production (or sales in the lower chart) each region achieved. Only in the green horizontal line is the share figure not that at all but is comparing decrease from the previous period. 

Production: China makes up 33% of the total with 1,057,000 units manufactured, down four percentage points on '21. The US and Japan are each at the 17% mark. Others are at 14%, a shame we can't see some detail there. Overseas factories produced 83% of the total, down on 86% last year.  

Sales: Again China leads with 32% of all Nissan sales but down from 34%. North America which includes Mexico fell below the million mark. Those two regions account for 62% of the total. Japan only takes 14% of sales and Europe 10%. Overseas sales went down from 89 to 86% of the total.