UK October new car market beats pre-pandemic levels

London – The UK new car market grew by 14.3% to reach 153,529 registrations in October, 7.2% above pre-pandemic levels, according to the latest figure by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT)

The figure marks “the best performance for the month since 2018” and 15th month of consecutive growth, said SMMT in a 6 Nov announcement.

The growth was driven “almost entirely” by large fleet registrations, which grew 28.8% to reach 87,479 units.

Private demand was stable at 62,915 vehicles, a 0.3% increase, while the much smaller business sector saw registrations fall 15.2% to 3,135 units.

With the sustained increase in new car registrations, overall vehicle uptake is now up 19.6% in the first 10 months, with the market “currently enjoying its best year since 2019,” SMMT noted.

With the October performance, SMMT revised up market outlook for the full year, now expecting new car registrations to reach 1.886 million by the end of the year, up 2.1% on July’s figures.

However, expectations for BEV uptake have been downgraded again slightly, by 1.7% to 324,000 units resulting in an expected market share at year end of 17.2%.

Despite a continued uptake of electric vehicles (EVs), accounting for 37.6% of all new car registrations, the segment witnessed a slow growth in October compared to last year.

Battery electric vehicles (BEV), for instance reported 42nd months of consecutive growth, up 20.1% year-on-year to 23,943 units. This, however, reflected a market share of 15.6%, a relatively small rise from last year’s 14.8%.

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) grew 24.6% to reach 19,574 units, while plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) recorded the highest proportional growth, up 60.5% to 14,285 registrations.

According to SMMT, the October’s plug-in vehicle performance follows a significant increase in charge point rollout in the third, which improved significantly relative to new plug-in car uptake.

Some 4,753 new standard charge points came online in the quarter, the largest ever quarterly delivery.

However, SMMT said, the installation was “disproportionately focused on London and the South East, which received four out of five new charge points”.

The region, however, accounts for “fewer than two in five new plug-in registrations during the same period.”

With EV uptake greatly influenced by perceptions of charge point infrastructure availability and accessibility, SMMT called for action “to ensure more equitable distribution and pricing for public charging.”

The association also called for a reduction in VAT on public charging to match home use, encouraging consumers who are unable to install their own charge point.

With demand for new cars surpassing pre-pandemic levels in the month, the market is “defying expectations and driving growth”, said Mike Hawes, SMMT CEO.

“Sustained success”, he added, depends on “encouraging all consumers to invest in the latest zero emission vehicles”.

For 2024, SMMT estimates a marginal growth of 1.0% in units to 1.970 million units for the year.

With “an absence of consumer incentives and an overwhelming dependency on fleet registrations for growth, however, BEV market share outlook has been revised down slightly to an expected market share of 22.3%.”

BEV registrations for the year, SMMT said, are expected to reach 439,000 units, a 35.5% increase over 2023.