‘Mindboggling’ red tape threatens classic car industry, owners warn

A village fete is seldom complete without an array of classic automobiles parked on the grass for motoring lovers to admire. But now historic car entrepreneurs are warning the swap to electrification and the purple tape ensuing from Brexit threaten the survival of enterprises that continue to keep these vintage autos on the street. 

The classic car sector has shaped a new group, the Historic and Basic Cars Alliance (HCVA), to shield an industry it claims has an yearly turnover of £18.3bn and both employs or supports some 113,000 work opportunities, including engineers, restorers, craftsmen and elements suppliers.

HCVA estimates there is a fleet of some 1.54m historic autos, defined as these in excess of thirty years outdated, on British isles roads. There are a further more 1.47m vintage automobiles, which are aged fifteen to thirty years outdated, bringing the full price of these autos to £12.6bn.

Even with their outdated-fashioned technologies, these automobiles are fewer polluting than envisioned as they are driven so seldom, covering an normal 1,200 miles a yr over the average of 16 moments they are driven, a fraction of the 7,000 miles most automobiles deal with.