New car registrations saw an improvement of about 14% in the busy month of September compared to the same month last year, according to data published this week – although it wasn’t quite all as it seemed.
About 38,000 more cars were registered in September 2025 than in the same month for 2024, according to monthly numbers published by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). Private new car sales were up by 9%, while fleet registrations grew by 17%.
September is generally the second-busiest month in the year for new car sales, after March, with number plates making their twice-a-year change. From September 2024 to the end of February 2026, all new cars will have a ’75-reg’ number plate.
Electrified cars make up half of sales
Another milestone was reached on the long journey from fossil fuels to electric cars in September, with more than half of all new cars registered being ‘electrified’ (full EVs, plug-in hybrids, basic hybrids) for the first time. Electric cars were up by 29%, plug-in hybrids by 56% and regular hybrids by 24%, and together they took just over 50% of all new registrations in September.
Petrol car numbers still increased by 2% compared to the same month last year, although market share fell because the overall growth was 14%. Diesel numbers fell to yet another new low, down by 28% to only 4% of total sales.
The much-trumpeted (by industry lobbyists) growth in EV registrations is basically inevitable if manufacturers want to hit their mandated 2025 sales targets. What the SMMT release doesn’t mention is how many of those cars were sold to real customers, and how hard some manufacturers are having to discount to achieve these numbers (equally, some car brands are sitting pretty on their EV targets). So there’s not a lot of point getting too caught up in ‘record EV sales’ headlines, as they’ll keep coming every month.
Chinese growth, not European
The big story from the impressive-looking growth figures in September is not yet another record month for EVs and hybrids, but the stunning growth for big Chinese car brands.
Of the 38,000 additional cars sold this September over last September, about 27,000 came from just three Chinese car manufacturers: BYD, Chery Group (through its conjoined Chery, Jaecoo and Omoda brands) and MG. Most European and Japanese brands underachieved in September, losing market share rather than gaining it.
To give you a sense of scale, the growth (not total sales) from those three Chinese companies is more than the total September sales for the UK’s biggest-selling car brand, Volkswagen. That represents an existential threat to a number of struggling European and Japanese car brands, and there’s a lot more to come from Chinese car companies over the next 12 months.
Conflating EV growth with China’s growth in the UK car market is a mistake. If the UK and EU bow to populist pressure to water down EV targets, China would simply send more petrol and hybrid cars. Their capacity for production growth vastly exceeds Europe’s.
Good month, bad month
So, despite a 14% increase in new car registrations, it wasn’t all beer and skittles for every car company and many big names performed poorly.
It was a good month for Alfa Romeo, Alpine, Bentley, BMW, BYD, Cupra, GWM, MG, Omoda, Peugeot and Vauxhall. All of these brands outperformed the overall market by at least 10%, meaning they saw growth of at least 24% over last September.
Meanwhile, things were not so good for Abarth, Audi, Citroën, Dacia, DS Automobiles, Fiat, Ford, Genesis, Honda, Hyundai, Ineos, Kia, Land Rover, Lexus, Maserati, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, SEAT, Smart, Subaru, Suzuki and Toyota. All of these brands underachieved against the overall market by at least 10%, meaning that they saw growth of less than 4% and – in many cases – significant falls.
That means that the following brands ended up about where you’d expect: Jeep, KGM, Mini, Polestar, Porsche, Renault, Skoda, Tesla, Volkswagen and Volvo. All of these brands were within +/-10% of the overall market.
The largest absolute improver was BYD, which catapulted from just over 1,000 cars last September to 11,000 cars this September. Going in the other direction, Land Rover dropped 2,500 units over the same month last year as deliveries fell by 30%.
Land Rover’s slump was heavily influenced by the company’s well-publicised recent cyberattack, which meant that all JLR’s factories in the UK and abroad were closed from mid-August until early October. That, in turn, restricted sales in September and is likely to make things even worse in October and November before we’re likely to see any sign of improvement.
As usual, Volkswagen was the UK’s biggest-selling car brand, ahead of Kia, BMW, Audi and Ford.
Sportage closes the gap
The race for 2025’s best-selling car title closed up a bit in September, as the Kia Sportage topped the charts to narrow the gap to the Ford Puma. With three months to go for this year, the Puma still holds a lead of nearly 3,000 vehicles and remains the favourite to retain its title as the UK’s most popular new car.
The most notable results in September were from the Jaecoo 7, which placed fourth and improved on last month’s sixth-place result, and the BYD Seal U, which finished sixth this month. It’s almost guaranteed that we’ll see a lot more of both brands before the end of this year.
We’ll have our usual run-down of the top ten shortly.
