UK CV Production : 1950 - 2013

Commercial vehicles are a section of the car industry that is overlooked by most. Understandable as we drive cars. So trucks and buses are simply large road users that block our view ahead and go slower than we would like. Basically they are necessary nuisances. However, they are an essential part of society in shipping both goods and people around.

After the Second World War, UK industry switched back to civilian vehicle making and CVs were an important part of that. By 1960, the UK was a major supplier of CVs to many parts of the world. 1969 was the peak at 465,720 (although if you add cars, 1972 was the biggest in the number of vehicles made).

The percentage peak of CV production was in 1951, but as more people were able to afford cars, naturally they became an ever larger part of vehicle manufacturing. However, that doesn't answer the drop that occurred in CV manufacturing in the last few decades. The right column shows that CV manufacturing is now down to 5.5% by unit volume, so what happened?

		LCV	HCV	Bus	All CV	% CV
	1950	243,147	6,663	11,347	261,157	33.3%
	1960	312,247	126,677	19,048	457,972	25.3%
	1970	242,849	191,449	23,234	457,532	21.8%
	1980	263,991	103,607	21,572	389,170	29.6%
	1990	241,326	27,516	1,504	270,346	17.3%
	2000	155,575	14,697	2,170	172,442	9.5%
	2010	107,576	10,116	1,508	119,200	8.6%
	2013	68,500	16,600	2,600	87,671	5.5%

As UK firms underinvested in both R & D and plant, the whole vehicle making industry suffered. What saved the UK car industry was overseas companies arriving and setting up car making factories. That didn't happen in the CV industry.

The good news for the UK is that heavy truck and bus manufacturing are at least stable and even doing a bit of growing. The bad news is that vans have suffered as Ford first reduced, and has now recently stopped, its Transit production. GM is the only van maker of note, and as long as they continue making Vivaro and Astra vans in the UK, there will still be a figure in the LCV column. 

Summary: UK car making is going really well, but it's CV production is looking rather sad. Still, that is what happens when an industry is neglected.

The Vivaro, mainstay of UK van production

Bedford pic at top from Commercialmotor.com.