The new car market in 2024 revealed winners and losers among carmakers as they battled for sales in a market skewed by the ZEV Mandate. Car makers that found the going tough include Ford, which fell -23.7% for the year followed by Stellantis owned Vauxhall which was down -21-4% for the period, followed by Porsche (-17.5%), Fiat (-14.1%) and Suzuki ...

Registrations by private buyers in 2024 fell by -8.7% to 746,276 units. The lack of demand in the private sector is reflected in electric vehicle sales. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), which released the figures said one of the major constraints to growth was the “lacklustre demand by private buyers”, with only one in 10 choosing an ...

Tesla has experienced its first decline in vehicle sales in ten years with 1.79 million vehicles in 2024, a 1.1% decline year on year. This downturn occurs amidst increasing competition, particularly from Chinese rival BYD, which has seen its electric vehicle (EV) sales increase significantly. In contrast to Tesla’s performance, BYD sales reached 1.76 million units, up by 12.1% year ...

The National Franchised Dealers Association (NFDA) has joined van manufacturers in calling for a moratorium on the ZEV Mandate for vans. Its commercial vehicle members back van manufacturers who have called for a short-term moratorium of the Zero-Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) mandate while welcoming the Government’s announcement, on 24 December 2024, of a consultation seeking industry input on supporting the transition ...

Family SUVs dominated carwow’s annual new-car interest rankings, with the Kia Sportage topping the list of models configured most frequently. In second place was the Hyundai Tucson, a model built on the same platform as the Sportage. Another family SUV, the Volkswagen Tiguan, claimed the final podium spot for new cars configured most often on Carwow. The highest-placed battery electric ...

Fast-expanding Steer Automotive Group has acquired Accident Repair Centre Group (ARC Group) bodyshop chain in the South West of England. ARC, established in 1991, has grown into a network of repair centres located in Bristol, Chippenham, Weston-Super-Mare and Swindon. The move by Steer is the latest in a string of acquisitions in recent years. The business has approvals from 23 ...

A tougher used car market dented Chapel House’s performance with pre-tax profits down 51.2% to £1.8m on turnover up 4.5% to £117.9m in the year to 30 June 2024. In results posted at Companies House the directors said they were satisfied with the performance of the company and it had reduced costs during the year with streamlined administrative and reporting ...

Vertu Motors has bolstered its board with the appointment of a retail heavy hitter Amanda Cox as an independent non-executive director. Cox is the current chief people officer and stores director at the £1.7bn-turnover homewares retailer Dunelm Group, which has 184 stores and employs 11,000 staff. She previously worked at Asda for 15 years in various human resource roles, latterly ...

Car retailers and the motor sector have welcomed the government’s decision to launch a consultation on the ZEV Mandate. The Mandate has come under attack for the past 12 months for failing to support the manufacture and sales of electric vehicles. The consultation will look at the phasing out sales of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 and and ...

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has launched a consultation to ask views from industry on how to deliver on the manifesto commitment to restore the 2030 phase out date for new purely petrol and diesel cars and make the transition to zero emissions vehicles a success. The government said the consultation would restore “clarity” for carmakers and the charging industry and ...