Orders for nine months' Leyland Nationals
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• The first nine months' output of the Leyland National integral bus are already covered by firm orders, it is revealed in the 1970 annual report of the British Leyland Motor Corporation. The Cumberland factory is on schedule and bus production should start towards the end of this year. The report states that there has been an upsurge in bus demand following on the formation of the NBC and the PTAs, but restriction of capital will limit the extent of demand, and fears that production capacity might be inadequate are now discounted.
On the truck side, BLMC reports that its market penetration in the 2 to 5 tons unladen weight range has increased, while in the over 5-ton range there is an expanding market of which BLMC has taken advantage, to the limit of its capacity.
Leyland policy to export at least half of its commercial production has, says the report, for the time being resulted in the Division "not having as many heavy trucks available for the domestic market as we would have liked, with the consequent marginal increase in imported trucks into this country".
Commenting that uncertainties about vehicle weights and environmental legislation has now been clarified, the report says BLMC "sees no difficultry in meeting requirements now or in the future".
In the Special Products Division, Scammell Lorries Ltd had an excellent year, with 30 per cent more sales than 1969.
In his chairman's report, Lord Stokes says that British Leyland has established a central research facility to cope with vehicle anti-pollution requirements and also has a joint program-le with Shell. A new safety test centre is being built and much research is being done on reduction of noise, particularly in commercial vehicles.