Almost two-thirds of new cars come with DAB

By James Cridland for media.info
Posted 27 April 2015, 8.34am edt

Digital Radio UK have announced today that nearly two-thirds of new cars now come with DAB Digital Radio as standard. The figure a year ago was just half.

In March 2015, says the DAB promoter, 64.9% of new car registrations had digital radio as standard, up from 50.7% the previous March (CAP/SMMT 2015). An additional 10% of new cars have DAB available as an option.

Norway announced a digital radio switchover in 2017 two weeks ago. Digital Radio UK said in a press release today that “63% of new cars available [in Norway have DAB] as standard or as an option”. The Norwegians claim a figure of 74%, and also claim that 20% of all cars on the roads are fitted with digital radio.

All of the top 20 selling car brands in the UK now offer DAB digital radio as standard or as an option. In order to achieve the “digital tick mark”, all in-car receivers must decode both DAB and DAB+, a new standard which we’re yet to use in the UK.

Ford Ennals, Digital Radio UK’s CEO, said this was “great news for drivers”.

In the meantime, Radioplayer is road-testing their hybrid car radio receiver. The retro-fitted adaptor, announced last year at Next Radio, switches between FM, DAB and IP automatically.

In March, Hyundai became the latest manufacturer to start fitting DAB digital radio as standard in their models. The car at the top of the page? That’ll be a Hyundai. (Before publication: check this ad slogan isn’t for someone else)