New car market growth driven by fleet sales increase

UK new car registrations increased year-on-year in September, driven by rising sales to the fleet market.

The latest figures published by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show that the overall new car market was up by 4.6% compared with 2021, with 225,269 registrations recorded.

In contrast with recent trends, this growth was chiefly due to fleet sales, up by 12.5% year-on-year, while private registrations were down by 3.6%.

However, the market is still a long way behind pre-Covid levels, with fleet registrations down by 39.7% last month compared with September 2019, and the overall market down by 34.4%. The SMMT said the industry was continuing to battle supply constraints as it attempted to fulfil a backlog of orders.

EV registrations were up by 16.5% last month, taking 16.9% of the overall market in the second-biggest month for EV sales ever recorded, although the SMMT warned the rate of growth was slower than those seen earlier this year.

Plug-in hybrids were down by 11.5% year-on-year, taking 5.5% of the market, while full hybrids were up by 16.5% for a 12.9% market share.

Mild hybrid petrol car registrations were up by 28.8% for a 15.6% market share, while mild hybrid diesels were down by 25%, taking 3.8% of the market.

Petrol car registrations fell by 2.8% for a 40.7% market share, while a 3.1% fall for diesel saw it account for just 4.6% of all sales.

Reacting to the figures, SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes said: “September has seen Britain’s millionth electric car reach the road – an important milestone in the shift to zero emission mobility. Battery electric vehicles make up but a small fraction of cars on the road, so we need to ensure every lever is pulled to encourage motorists to make the shift if our green goals are to be met.

“The overall market remains weak, however, as supply chain issues continue to constrain model availability. Whilst the industry is working hard to address these issues, the long-term recovery of the market also depends on robust consumer confidence and economic stability.”