Evoque sales powering ahead
LAND Rover has been able to sustain its amazing sales revival for more than 12 months, latest car registration figures have confirmed.
However, the same cannot be said for stablemate Jaguar, which has seen an overall decline in sales during the same period.
The strength of the Land Rover brand’s performance is underlined by the incredible popularity of its Halewood-produced Evoque model, which has now been on sale in the UK for a year.
New figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders show 8,745 Land Rover vehicles were registered in the UK in September (2011: 6,230) – an overall increase of 40.4%. For the year-to-date, Land Rover registrations are up more than 35% compared to the first nine months of 2011.
The SMMT figures show 2,962 Jaguars were registered in September (2011: 3,295) – a fall of more than 10%. For the year-to-date, Jaguar registrations are down 1.75% compared with the nine months to the end of September last year.
One crumb of comfort for the firm is that rivals such as Lexus and Volvo also saw sales falls, although BMW, Audi and Mercedes all showed growth for the month.
September is one of the most important months of the year for the car industry because of the new registration plates and the SMMT figures suggest the UK automotive industry is continuing its resurgence with new car registrations up 8.2% for the month to 359,612 units, exceeding expectations by more than 26,000 cars.
It said the market has now increased 4.3% to 1,620,609 units in the first three quarters of 2012, up 67,515 units.
Since this time last year, the new car market has enjoyed quarter-on-quarter growth vs the previous year, culminating in a 7.5% gain in Q3 – the best non-scrappage impacted quarterly growth since 2001.
Paul Everitt, SMMT Chief Executive, said: “The important September plate change market outperformed expectations with new car registrations increasing more than 8% on last year to 359,612 units.
“Although the economic outlook remains challenging, we are starting to see a tentative return of consumer confidence as motorists explore new products and the latest fuel-efficient technologies.”
Richard Lowe, head of retail & wholesale at Barclays, added: “The all-important September plate change did not disappoint. Private sales are driving the market as consumers are attracted by manufacturer incentives such as affordable monthly finance packages.
“The new car market in the UK continues to out-perform the rest of Europe and whilst there is no reason to suggest that this trend will reverse, manufacturers may need to adopt a more cautious approach to the balance between supply and demand as we head towards the end of the year.”
