Motor Trader The award-winning and longest running UK magazine for car retailing professionals. Your first stop for News, Jobs and Reports for the motor industry.
New car registrations in October declined by -2.9% to 153,599 vehicles as changes to emissions legislation under new WLTP rules continued to cause shortages in the market.
Declines were seen in both the private and fleet sectors, with registrations down -1.0% and -5.2% respectively.
The onslaught on diesel continues with registrations down -21.3% while registrations of petrol cars rose +7.1%. The market for alternatively fuelled vehicles (AFVs) showed strong growth, up +30.7%, supported by new models. Zero emission battery electric vehicles rose +86.9%, from a very low base and hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles grew +31% and +19.1% respectively.
The SMMT said this was not surprising given the government announcement that the Plug-in Car Grant was to be cut for pure electric cars and withdrawn completely for plug-in hybrids. In the year to date, new car registrations were down -7.2%.The SMMT said some catch-up is possible on the remainder of the year as supply catches up with demand on some models.
There were winners and losers for the month. MG saw registrations up 303.6%, Mitsubishi (99.7%), Jaguar (82%), Mini (62.7%) and Mazda (43%). At the other end of the spectrum Infiniti was in negative territory, down -86%, Porsche (-65%), DS (-61%), Bentley (-58.3%) and Audi (-52.7%). The fastest selling car in October was the Fiesta.
Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said, “VED upheaval, regulatory changes and confusion over diesel have all made their mark on the market this year so it’s good to see plug-in registrations buck the trend.”
“October’s small decline in new car sales shows that WLTP continues to distort the market and constrain the supply of new vehicles to the UK”, said NFDA director Sue Robinson.
“As stock supply improves, we expect the market to perform better going forward and, in particular, in the first quarter of 2019,” she said.
Justin Benson, head of automotive at KPMG UK, said: “The UK’s automotive sector is in a transition phase. We are seeing a rebalancing of consumer demand, as new regulations and the perception of diesel are driving different consumer behaviours, with some moving away from diesel vehicles.”
Seán Kemple, director of sales at Close Brothers Motor Finance, said there was some positive news. “We are seeing a number of manufacturers reducing their targets for the end of the year, recognising the challenges in selling cars at the moment.”