This piece was originally published in the HCVA newsletter and appears here as we are affiliated trade members of HCVA.

 

As those of you who have read our previous posts will be aware we are extremely proud to be Trade Members of the HCVA – the Historic & Classic Vehicles Alliance.

The Alliance was created to protect and promote the Classic Car industry by actively lobbying the government and building alliances across the classic car world.

Please take the time to read their latest newsletter which includes a very informative article regarding the sustainability credentials of our cars and industry.

We highly recommend that you consider becoming a member in order to ensure the long-term future and enjoyment of our wonderful cars. Please follow this link: https://www.hcva.co.uk/3/sign-up

 

Welcome to the Historic & Classic Vehicles Alliance Newsletter

 

Thank You!

It has been a rather busy first few weeks familiarising myself with the details, tackling our campaign actions and getting to know the stakeholders. I hope to meet many more of you over the coming months.

You will be keen to see progress on our campaigns and activities and this progress is at the core of delivering tangible benefits to our members as we develop both our ‘Trade and Industry’ and ‘Owner and Enthusiast’ membership.

Membership Categories

I am pleased to announce some changes to membership categories.

  • Firstly, in order to encourage Young Enthusiasts to join us for those 21 and under, membership will be free.
  • Secondly, we will reduce Full Membership for individuals over 21 to £48 including VAT. Those of you who joined us at the prior rate we propose to extend your membership to two years.
  • We now introduce a Family Membership for families in the same household of £90 including VAT.
  • Supporting Owners Membership remains unchanged other than it includes family members living in the same household.

Trade and Industry Membership as either Full or Associate remains unchanged though we will end Founding Partner Membership at the end of November when a new category of Corporate Member will be introduced as we aim to recruit some of the larger organisations to support the campaign.

Other News

The website and new show materials demonstrate our activity in Environmental messaging and positive actions - we are working to ensure that the classic vehicle sustainability message is understood. I recently attended the Low Carbon Vehicle show and was impressed with the range of technologies on display and the support for our sector. 
Discussions regarding electrification of classics can be divisive and we are navigating a path through this.  For example, demonstrating that on average our classic cars emit substantially less CO2 than our mobile phones each year needs sensitive communication. 
We have exciting news on a member benefit that will enable the offsetting of CO2 emitted by our historic vehicles – we are working in partnership with one of our Founding Partners, NET-HERO.  
We are developing a programme to evaluate the usability and benefits of sustainable fuels in our vehicles – this includes those that are fully synthetic, the so-called e-fuels for use in existing internal combustion engines.
Fuel has been in our minds for the other reasons over recent months as a result of shortages, price rises and the introduction of E10 - we are pleased to have written or commented on several E10 ‘Myth Buster’ articles.


I attended the launch of the second Historic Skills Academy facility (at Brooklands) run by John and Janice Pitchforth. We will continue to support and promote their activities, bringing companies to them to support apprentices and the essential skills for our sector.
Discussions have begun to enable a simpler scheme for the temporary importation of vehicles for repair and restoration - and movement to and from Europe for shows, tours and track activity.
We are founders of a new working group established with the DVLA concerning the registration of historic and classic vehicles.  Other participants include the RAC and the FBHVC. The recent press release is available to read on the HCVA website.
We continue to develop our relationships with wider Government teams, from business to heritage and transport to trade, in order to support our campaigns. We now have the support of a public affairs specialist to help accelerate this work.
We are building relationships with the wider sector beyond cars - motorcycles, busses, lorries, tractors and other off-highway vehicles form around 50% of the historic and classic sector.
We continue to widen our publicity activities by releasing articles and announcements in various media - we also have advocates in social media, press and television who are working to broadcast our campaign more widely.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion are extremely important to me and the HCVA - increasingly I am seeing that the sector is not the domain of the middle-aged man and I will be ensuring that we remain welcoming to ALL and we will promote this message.

Growing Membership

The above are some of our current activities and areas of focus.  But Growing Membership is the critical action for us ALL. The more members we attract across all categories, the more funds we attract to enable us to deliver more for the members.

May I therefore ask each of you to reach out to your trade partners, customers and suppliers or if an individual member to your friends, fellow classic vehicle owners and any specialists or suppliers that you use to encourage them to join us at the HCVA.  

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or feedback that you feel might help the HCVA successfully grow further. 

Very best regards and happy classic motoring.

Garry

DVLA Update

Following the hard work of HCVA Advisory Group members over the summer in engaging with senior officials at the DVLA the inaugural meeting of the Historic and Classic Vehicle User Group took place on the 7th October, bringing together representatives of the DVLA with key membership groups including the HCVA.

This new User Group has been formed to enable the issues to be aired but more importantly to identify how solutions may be found that support the DVLA and the Historic and Classic Vehicle sector.

The meeting saw the DVLA clarify existing processes and policies including the registration of a broad spectrum of historic and classic vehicles. Each of the club associations and the HCVA, representing the trade and its customers, presented details of their organisations and their top challenges - which were presented positively and received as such by the DVLA. There was enthusiastic agreement to build on this first meeting and to continue with regular meetings.

Rest assured that the HCVA will continue to represent the interests of the Classic Vehicle Sector and robustly voice the concerns and issues experienced by the trade and public alike when dealing with the DVLA and actively seek a long term resolution to the challenges faced. This work will continue both via the new user group and in direct engagement with senior officers at the DVLA.

Positive messaging about the environment

A significant challenge facing the classic vehicle world today is the perceived high impact on the environment of the classic vehicle.  COP26 and recent articles have heightened these concerns. You are NOT killing the planet by driving or riding a classic!

Our vehicles have a vanishingly small impact on the environment. However, we are not being complacent and are striving hard to ensure our vehicles and sector achieve net-zero well ahead of legislative targets.

The HCVA is committed to providing a balanced and informed narrative on the true impact of classic vehicles and to the solutions on offer to make us carbon neutral or indeed even better.
 

Did you know?

  • Classic and historic vehicles are already much closer to net zero than you might have thought 
  • Our industry is the epitome of sustainability through extensive reuse, repair and recycling 
  • Typical classic car use emits substantially less CO2 annually than your mobile phone or computer 
  • We’re pushing hard for net zero well ahead of legislative targets for the automotive sector 
  • We’re promoting sector emission reductions including carbon neutral fuels and offsetting
  • We’ve launched a ‘simple to use’ carbon offsetting scheme for the classic sector alongside NET-HERO

The HCVA are committed to embracing the environmental challenge by supporting our members in the development of technology to improve the efficiency of historic vehicles.

We believe that the development and introduction of CO2 neutral fuels are the way forward and are progressing ways in which we can support research and development of these either ourselves or in partnership with others.

Instant Offset

Whilst we support the development of alternative technologies the need to become CO2 neutral remains therefore; we are proud to announce Instant Offset, the HCVA carbon offset scheme.  You can choose to offset just your classic or historic vehicle or to be a true environmental hero by offsetting your modern cars too!

The HCVA have teamed up with Founding Partner NET-HERO to provide a carbon off-set scheme.  By following the link on the HCVA website you will be connected with the scheme that contains a vehicle database allowing you to calculate the greenhouse gas emissions of both new and classic cars based on your annual mileage.

Credits can be purchased that off-set the emissions produced in your years motoring by funding UK Government endorsed, AAA rated carbon projects including afforestation in the UK.  Once you have signed up you will receive a certificate confirming your status as an environmentally friendly driver and a vignette to display in your vehicle.

Join the HCVA today!

Please help us by spreading the word – the HCVA's approach to the government and decision-makers will be taken far more seriously, the greater our membership and representation of the historic vehicle sector: there is a direct correlation between the size of our membership and how seriously the HCVA will be taken at government level.

New members can sign up here