The_Accessor_Autumn 2025 web - Flipbook - Page 6
JOURNAL
NEWS
FAKE
ADAS TECHNICIAN VEHICLE
TRAINING
PARTS WORTH
LACK OF APPETITE FOR
OVER £100,000
SEIZED IN MAJOR
OPERATION
A new survey has exposed a stark readiness gap in the UK’s independent
automotive aftermarket, with two-thirds of workshops lacking any vehicle
technicians quali昀椀ed to carry out ADAS calibrations and repair work. More
than half of respondents to the Autotech Training survey either outsource
this work, at a cost of up to £300 per vehicle, or don’t offer it at all, while
just 17.5% plan to invest in ADAS training over the next 12 months.
The survey mirrors warnings from the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI),
which recently reported that just 7,572 technicians in the UK are currently
quali昀椀ed to work on ADAS. This represents only 3% of the nation’s
automotive workforce, alarmingly low when compared to the projected
requirement of nearly 97,000 trained technicians by 2032.
This highlights the widening gap between the rapid adoption of
advanced vehicle technology and the industry’s readiness to support it.
More than 3,600 potentially dangerous fake
vehicle parts worth more than £100,000
seized by of昀椀cials in South Gloucestershire
self-storage raid – including spark plugs, oil
昀椀lters and sensors.
Potentially lethal fake vehicle parts have been
seized by authorities in a major operation in
South Gloucestershire. The operation saw
South Gloucestershire Trading Standards
remove more than 3,600 counterfeit branded
components from a trader operating from a
self-storage facility. The value of the items
seized is estimated at more than £100,000.
NEW CAR MARKET WILL TOP TWO
MILLION UNITS THIS YEAR FOR THE FIRST
TIME SINCE PRE-COVID 2019
Combined, electri昀椀ed vehicles comprised the majority of
new car registrations for the second consecutive month, with
50.8% of the market.
While October’s growth was more modest, year to date the
overall BEV market is now up 28.9%, at 386,244 units – more
than registered in the whole of 2024 – with two months still
to go before the year ends. BEVs now account for 22.4% of
all new sales, thanks to massive manufacturer investment
and, more recently, government support through the Electric
Car Grant.
The UK new car market remained stable in October as
registrations rose 0.5% to reach 144,948 units, according to
the latest SMMT 昀椀gures.
Electri昀椀ed vehicles were the only powertrain technologies to
record growth, largely driven by battery electric vehicle (BEV)
uptake, registrations of which rose by 23.6%, equivalent to
7,028 additional units. As a result, BEVs took a 25.4% market
share, the second highest recorded this year, although still
short of the 28% target set by the ZEV Mandate. Plug-in
hybrid vehicle (PHEV) uptake rose 27.2% to account for
12.1% of the market, while hybrid electric vehicles (HEV)
posted growth of 2.1% to claim a 13.3% share.
6
The latest quarterly industry outlook anticipates the overall
new car market for 2025 will top two million units (2.012
million) for the 昀椀rst time since pre-pandemic 2019, with BEVs
expected to account for 23.3% of uptake.
For 2026, the overall market is expected to reach 2.032
million units, a moderate improvement on the previous
outlook, with the BEV outlook maintained at 28.2%. While
this would represent progress, it would still fall short of
mandated targets for 2026, which call for zero emission
vehicles to comprise one in three new car registrations, said
the SMMT.
The gap is set to widen in 2027, with BEV share anticipated
to hit 32.2% against a 38% target.
THE ASSESSORS JOURNAL | AUTUMN 2025 | www.iaea-online.org/news/the-assessor
