Workshops braced for a million MOTs a month

Workshops have been warned to prepare for a backlog of up to five million MOTs in the second half of the year.

This huge increase in demand is because millions of tests were postponed in 2020 because of Covid, when UK motorists were granted a six-month extension to MOTs which were due between 30 March and 31 July.

During this time, 5.3 million less tests took place, compared to the same period in 2019.

With MOTs due again, Continental Tyres is predicting that September 2021 will see a 23% rise in tests. That is expected to increase to 42% in November and 51% in December.

Tracey Mortimer, consumer sales director UK, said: “Traditionally, there is a fairly consistent demand for MOT testing across the year. For example, between three and 3.5 million MOTs were conducted each month during 2018 and 2019, with only slight peaks in demand in March and September linked to new car registrations, and a slight dip in tests in December.

“The postponements to millions of MOTs in 2020 has now created a new seasonal demand curve, which is likely to take over 10 years to return to pre-2020 levels.”