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Chip shortage puts brakes on August new car sales

Puma tops the charts but the chips are down for new car sales

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New car registrations slumped 22% last month to record their worst August performance in nine years, according to figures published today by the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders (SMMT).

August is always a quiet month for sales, with buyers preferring to wait until the registration plate change on 1st September. But this year’s figures have also been affected by the worldwide shortage of semiconductor chips, forcing manufacturers to slow their production lines and leading to supply issues.

Fleet registrations contributed to most of the August decline, down nearly 28%. Private sales, in contrast, were down by only 15%. However, the industry will be eagerly awaiting the traditional September sales surge to try and claw back lost ground.

Source: SMMT

Yet another worst-ever result for diesel

The figures continued to show the advance of electrified vehicles in the market, particularly plug-in hybrids which were up 72% on last August. Battery-electric cars also climbed 46% in yet another good month, while regular hybrids were up 48%. Eight months into 2021, electrified vehicles now account for 30% of all new-car registrations.

The big loser has again been diesel. Just under 8,400 diesel-powered cars were registered in August, which is another crashing decline – less than half of the numbers from the same month last year.

Good month, bad month

The relative success or failure for each brand in August will largely be down to securing supply of vehicles and deciding whether to sell stock in August or wait for September. But, as we’ve seen a lot over the last year, there was significant variation in performance across the industry.

Strong performances in August came from Abarth, Alpine, Audi, Bentley, Fiat, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Lexus, Mazda, MG, SEAT and Toyota, all of whom outperformed the market by at least 10%.

Meanwhile, things were gloomier at DS Automobiles, Ford, Jaguar, Land Rover, Maserati, Mini, Mitsubishi, Peugeot, Porsche, Renault, Smart, SsangYong and Vauxhall, who underachieved against the market by at least 10%.

Once again, Volkswagen and Audi sat at the top of the table for manufacturer registrations. But it was yet another miserable month for Ford (down 52%) and Renault (down 76%), continuing their struggles from the last few months.

Puma hits the top

After steadily rising up the charts this year, the Ford Puma small SUV hit the #1 spot in August, edging out the Volkswagen Polo by a mere 40 units.

As in recent months, the semiconductor shortage in the new-car market has continued to play havoc on the best-sellers list. The BMW 3 Series turned up in fifth place, just ahead of the Hyundai Tucson. Meanwhile, the Vauxhall Corsa and Ford Fiesta both had another subdued month, while the Volkswagen Golf fell out of the top ten altogether.

We’ll have our usual analysis of the top ten in coming days.

2109 August new car registrations top 10
Source: SMMT

Additional reporting by Stuart Masson

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Andrew Charman
Andrew Charman
Andrew is a road test editor for The Car Expert. He is a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers, and has been testing and writing about new cars for more than 20 years. Today he is well known to senior personnel at the major car manufacturers and attends many new model launches each year.