Abstract
ACCORDING to an article in Engineering of January 31, new registrations of private cars in Great Britain in the first seven months of 1940 totalled only 30,200, compared with 194,500 in 1939. Since July 1940, new registrations have been taken out at the rate of only 200–300 a month. New registrations of commercial vehicles up to July were about one quarter of the corresponding figures for 1939; after July, however, there was a fall from an average of about 1,400 a month to about 300 a month as the result of the ban on sales except by special permit. Exports of private cars from the United Kingdom in 1931 numbered 17,104; in 1937 the figure was 53,655; and in 1939 it was 35,190 during January–August and only 8,040 during September–December. These figures show that the rate of export of complete cars and chassis was approximately halved as the result of the outbreak of war. A comparison of British exports and new registrations during the early months of 1940 suggests that the production of private cars was probably at the rate of 6,000 a month. This compares with about 30,000 a month during the early months of 1939 and a peak production of more than 32,000 a month in 1937. The production of private cars for the home market had thus become only a subsidiary function of the industry, the main functions of which were the provision of trucks and lorries for the Army and assistance to the aircraft industry.
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Motor-Vehicle Industry in Great Britain. Nature 147, 386 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/147386b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/147386b0