trends in UK car engine capacity
Posted: 26 Jul 2006, 14:45
Just came across some interesting stuff on the DfT website:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/d ... =14605&l=3
this PDF in particular is the subject of this post:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/d ... 041505.pdf
I've plotted some of the data from it in a graph showing the number of cars registered according to engine capacity from 1994 to 2004:
The trends are however a little clearer if it is all normalised, so that "1" is the 1994 figure, and "2" would be double that:
You can saee that in the 10 years covered, the number of cars above 3000cc and between 2000 and 2500cc more than doubled, and the 2500-3000cc range was up by almost 75%. The more modest engine sizes have grown less, or even fallen. I assume the growth in sub-700cc engines in hte last few years is down to the Smart car.
I realise engine cc is not an entirely accurate measure of fuel efficiency, but I think it's probably not too bad. Thankfully the larger engine sizes still only make up a relatively small proportion of the total vehicles in the UK, and judging by living near Oxford and doing the odd trip into London, most of them seem to be in the South East...
Anyway, it's good to see that sensible consumers are responding to the rising fuel prices - NOT. I guess it goes to show that all those years of the fuel price escalator didn't really work, and it's interesting to think about how the current price rises will affect car purchasing... I guess we have to wait a bit to get some more recent data from the DfT.
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/d ... =14605&l=3
this PDF in particular is the subject of this post:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/d ... 041505.pdf
I've plotted some of the data from it in a graph showing the number of cars registered according to engine capacity from 1994 to 2004:
The trends are however a little clearer if it is all normalised, so that "1" is the 1994 figure, and "2" would be double that:
You can saee that in the 10 years covered, the number of cars above 3000cc and between 2000 and 2500cc more than doubled, and the 2500-3000cc range was up by almost 75%. The more modest engine sizes have grown less, or even fallen. I assume the growth in sub-700cc engines in hte last few years is down to the Smart car.
I realise engine cc is not an entirely accurate measure of fuel efficiency, but I think it's probably not too bad. Thankfully the larger engine sizes still only make up a relatively small proportion of the total vehicles in the UK, and judging by living near Oxford and doing the odd trip into London, most of them seem to be in the South East...
Anyway, it's good to see that sensible consumers are responding to the rising fuel prices - NOT. I guess it goes to show that all those years of the fuel price escalator didn't really work, and it's interesting to think about how the current price rises will affect car purchasing... I guess we have to wait a bit to get some more recent data from the DfT.