Car manufacturers enjoy strong domestic demand
STRONG domestic demand continued to bolster UK car sales last month with the number of new registrations rising almost 15% compared with the same month last year – the best April performance since 2008.
A number of UK-based manufacturers also enjoyed a strong month, notably Jaguar Land Rover which saw sales of both marques maintain their impressive performance.
Sales of Jaguars increased 34% to 1,080 cars (2012: 805), while Land Rover was up 32% with 3,483 vehicles (2012: 2,633) registered – outselling Mini.
In total, there were 163,357 new vehicles registered last month (2012: 142,322), an increase of 14.8%. For the year to date registrations are up 8.9% at 768,555 (2012: 705,878).
Mike Baunton, interim chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said: “The UK new car market continues to perform surprisingly strongly, with volumes again increasing in April. While the headline increase was up almost 15% there were more sales days this year than last.
“The UK continues to perform well ahead of the troubled Eurozone as consumer confidence, regular purchase cycles, attractive finance deals and wider market factors continue to make new car buying favourable for motorists.”
April secured the strongest growth in 14 months as buying cycles and market volatility combined to boost uptake. Growth followed a further rise in private registrations, up almost a third on April last year.
The problems on the continent are illustrated by the fact the UK new car market continued to outperform the EU.
The positive Q1 growth has led the SMMT to revise up its full year market forecast to 2.106m units, which would be a 3% increase on 2012.
Ford retained its place as the firm with the largest market share (13.58%) and its sales rose 7.55% year on year. Nearest rival Vauxhall saw a monthly rise above 7%, although its market share (10.8%) was down on this time last year.
There was also disappointing news for Jaguar rival BMW, which saw a near 10% monthly decline on its sales at 8,866 (2012: 9,846). However, both Audi and Mercedes Benz saw growth, up 20.4% and 13.5% respectively.
There was better news for BMW’s Mini, which sold 3,350 cars, up 30% on the same month last year (2012: 2,581).
In the luxury sector, Aston Martin and Bentley both saw strong growth, the former brand rising more than 50%, while VW-owned Bentley increased by a healthy 27%.
Bestselling car for the month was the Ford Fiesta – as it has been for the year to date – closely followed by the Vauxhall Corsa.
