New car registrations followed a familiar pattern in June, according to data published today by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), with strong fleet sales but abysmal private sales.
Overall, the market was up just 1% over the same month last year. But as has been the case for most of the last year, private new car sales were poor (down 15%) while fleet and business registrations were strong (up 14% and 22%, respectively).
At the halfway point of the year, we see that private new car sales are down 12% compared to the first half of 2023, while fleet registrations are up 22% – leasing to an overall increase of 6% on last year.
Making life even more miserable for car dealers in June was the general election. Elections are like kryptonite to car showrooms, as customers shy away from spending money on big-ticket items during a period of national uncertainty. Dealers will be hoping to get a bit of a rebound in July once the election is resolved and a (presumably) new government installed in Westminster.
We have a special feature looking at the year’s disastrous private new car sales, exploring what’s going wrong.
EV sales increasing, but still behind target
June saw the best month of the year for electric cars in terms of market share, taking 19% of all new car registrations. This is still down on the full-year target of 22% set by the outgoing government, but the industry is confident that the second half of the year will be stronger than the first (and the limited amount of EV sales data from previous years tends to back that up).
Petrol-powered cars are still dominant with just over half (51%) of all new car sales, but their market share is starting to slip thanks to the steady growth of EVs, hybrids and plug-in hybrids. Diesel, as usual, is disappearing into insignificance with only 6% of the market.
In terms of the half-year result, EV sales are only slightly up on the same point last year, with just under 17% of the market. Based on predicted sales for the rest of the year, that will need to jump to about 30% over the next six months to get to a full-year share of 22% – which is highly unlikely. Fortunately for car manufacturers, there are a few loopholes that they will be able to use to wiggle out of any enormous fines for not hitting their targets…
Good month, bad month
Despite similar overall registration numbers to last June, there was quite a bit of movement among the car manufacturers.
It was a good month for Alfa Romeo, BMW, BYD, Citroën, Cupra, Dacia, GWM Ora, Jeep, Land Rover, Nissan, Renault, SEAT, Smart, Suzuki, Toyota and Volvo. All of these brand outperformed the overall market by at least 10% (so had sales up at least 11% on last June).
Things weren’t so cheerful for Abarth, Alpine, Bentley, DS Automobiles, Ford, Genesis, Ineos, Jaguar, KGM (nee SsangYong), Lexus, Maserati, Mini, Polestar, Porsche, Subaru, Tesla and Vauxhall. All of these brands underachieved by at least 10% against the overall market (so had sales down by at least 9% on last June)
That means that the following manufacturers were pretty much where you’d expect them to be: Audi, Fiat, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, MG, Peugeot, Skoda and Volkswagen. These brands were all within 10% of the overall market for last June, so only minor movements up or down.
Kia Sportage tops the sales charts in June
Kia’s family SUV, the Sportage, was the best-selling new car in June, ahead of the UK-built Nissan Juke and resurgent Tesla Model Y. With the market-leading Ford Puma down in eighth place this month, the Sportage has closed in on the Puma for the overall sales crown.
Tesla had two cars in the top ten for the first time in many months, with the Model Y crossover in third place and the freshly updated Model 3 saloon in tenth.
We have our regular look at the top ten here.
