New car registrations continue to accelerate
NEW car registrations increased by 9.4% year-on-year during August – the 30th consecutive month of growth.
In total, 72,163 new cars were registered last month and year-to-date registrations have now passed 1.5 million units, up 10.1% on 2013 – with four months of the year to go, including this month’s new registrations.
Private and fleet registrations both displayed similar increases in the month, with the former making the greater gains in the year-to-date.
What is impressive is that August is usually one of the year’s quietest months for new car registrations, typically accounting for around 3% of the annual market. In comparison, September usually makes up around 18% of the year’s registrations.
However, despite the rise, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders has warned there is likely to be some levelling off in the rate of growth during the coming months.
Mike Hawes, SMMT Chief Executive, said: “New car registrations reached two-and-a-half years of consecutive monthly growth in August, as confident private and fleet consumers continued to snap up enticing deals on a wealth of advanced new products.
“The UK’s performance in the context of Europe is particularly impressive, with growth consistently ahead of the rest of the EU for the past two years. As the UK market starts to find its natural level, we expect to see the growth level off during coming months.”
Most of the leading manufacturers saw growth in August, although BMW was the exception – down almost 20% year on year. This was in contrast to its German rivals Audi (32%) and Mercedes Benz (12.6%), which both saw growth.
With the launch of the Jaguar XE just days away, the marque saw its registrations increase more than 6% during the month compared with August last year. Land Rover was quieter, up just 2.6% during the period.
Ford maintained its leading market share with the month’s two best sellers – the Fiesta and Focus. The two models have been the UK’s most popular cars throughout the year to date.
Vauxhall saw three of its models in the top 10 for the month – Corsa, Astra and Insignia.
Elsewhere, Mini continued its recovery following a poor start to the year due to a lack of demand for its outgoing model. MG continued it renaissance with registrations up 485% for the. However, volumes are so small that the company’s market share is a tiny 0.11%.
At the opposite end of the market, both Aston Martin and Bentley endured a poor months, sales down respectively 38.7% and 64.1%.
