Electric cars have continued to defy the production chaos that continues to plague the car industry, according to October’s new car registration figures published today by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
Private new car sales were down a very modest 3% on October, compared to the same month last year. But fleet registrations were down by more than 40%, meaning that the overall market was down by about 25% year-on-year.
As has been the case, car manufacturers have been struggling to supply new cars due to ongoing shortage of semiconductor chips that help power almost every aspect of a modern car. It’s a problem that has affected the industry for most of this year, and will certainly last well into next year.
The combination of a relatively stable private segment, a very poor fleet segment and severe supply issues also means that the top ten and overall manufacturer results are quite mixed up once again.
An electric atmosphere
Nearly half of all new cars registered in October (48%) had some form of electrification. Just over 16% of that was from mild hybrids, where a small electric motor boost a petrol or diesel engine but can’t run the car on its own. Fully-electric cars had another stellar month, making up more than 15% of all new car registrations for the second month in a row, while plug-in hybrids and regular hybrids (that can’t be plugged in but can run for short distances on electrical power alone) both took about 8% of the market each.
Unsurpisingly, diesel had another terrible month – although, for the first time in a while, it wasn’t yet another “worst month ever”. Pretty close, though…
Good month, bad month
It was yet another disastrous month (by its normal lofty standards) for Ford. Traditionally the UK’s biggest new car brand, the Blue Oval was only sixth in overall sales behind Volkswagen, BMW, Kia, Mercedes-Benz and Audi.
Last month’s biggest-selling brand, Toyota, fell back to a more normal ninth place. Overall, it was yet another topsy-turvy month, with each manufacturer’s performance largely dependent on how many cars it had available to sell. Against an overall market that was down 25%, there was a lot of variation.
It was a good(-ish) month for Alfa Romeo, Alpine, Citroën, Dacia, Hyundai, Kia, Maserati, Mazda, MG, Mini, Nissan, Peugeot, Polestar, Porsche, Smart, SsangYong, Subaru and Suzuki, who were all at least 10% better than the overall market.
Meanwhile, it was a bad (or even worse) month for Abarth, Audi, DS Automobiles, Ford, Jaguar, Jeep, Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, Skoda and Toyota, who were all at least 10% worse than the overall market.
Polo is mint as Fiesta loses its flavour
The Volkswagen Polo topped the sales charts in October, just edging out the Mini hatch, while the new Nissan Qashqai completed the top three. From there, it was a bit of a jumble once again.
The Ford Focus appeared for the first time in months, and was the only Ford in the top ten. It was another miserable month for the Ford Fiesta, which appears to have claimed only 539 registrations in October – by comparison, Volkswagen registered six times as many Polos.
This all means that the Vauxhall Corsa is now a nailed-on certainty to finish 2021 as the UK’s best-selling car, even if Vauxhall closed all its showrooms right now. The Fiesta, which has ruled the roost for the last 12 years, has slumped to fifth and looks to be at risk of being overtaken by its SUV sibling, the Ford Puma, and could fall even further if the Nissan Qashqai continues to sell up a storm.
As usual, we’ll have our full analysis of the top ten in the next few days.
