This was the best July performance since 2020, when pent-up demand for new cars was unleashed following three months of lockdown during the pandemic. Despite this continuous growth, however, the overall market year to date remains behind pre-pandemic levels.
Andrew Leech, founder and managing director of Tamworth-based salary sacrifice and fleet management specialist, Fleet Evolution, says car retailers are in a unique position to better educate new and prospective buyers about EVs, but many are failing to meet their responsibilities.
Industry body said that given that recharging an EV at home can offer a 60-70% cost per mile saving compared with refueling a petrol or diesel vehicle, it would like to see a cut in VAT on public charging to help quicken uptake.
New vehicle upply is holding up well, with a 10% increase in UK car production in April and robust demand helping this additional output translate into higher sales, but despite 10 consecutive months of growth, registrations remain 21.0% below pre-pandemic 2019 levels.
As supply chain pressures have begun to ease, the overall market is now up 16.9% in the first four months – the best start to a year since the pandemic, with growth worth £3.2 billion. This has led to an upward revision of the quarterly market outlook, the first positive revision since 2021, with 1.83 million new car registrations expected in 2023, up from 1.79 million anticipated in January.
Registrations rose across all sales types, with deliveries to private buyers up by 1.4%, and those to businesses with fleets of fewer than 25 vehicles up 26.0%. Large fleets, however, were the predominant drivers of March’s growth, with registrations rising by 40,651 units, a 40.9% increase to take an overall 48.6% market share.
Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) recorded the most significant growth of all fuel types, up 40.0%, followed by petrol, up 35.8% with a 56.9% market share, while diesel registrations fell by 7.0%.2 Zero emission capable vehicles, meanwhile, continued their upward trend, with plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) rising 1.0% and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) posting another strong month, up 18.2% to account for one in six new UK car registrations.
It was a strong month for large fleet registrations, which increased by 36.8% to 69,540 units, while registrations by private buyers fell by 4.3% to 59,639 units – reflecting some easing of supply and evidence of how shortages last year distorted market performance. Registrations by businesses, the smallest segment at 2,815 units, rose by 45.6%.
Constrained supply saw many manufacturers prioritise deliveries of the latest zero emission-capable models. December saw battery electric vehicles (BEVs) claim their largest ever monthly market share, of 32.9%, while for 2022 as a whole they comprised 16.6% of registrations, surpassing diesel for the first time to become the second most popular powertrain after petrol.
Growth delivered the best total for November since 2019, with manufacturers continuing efforts to fulfil orders amid erratic global components supply. However, registrations in the month were still 8.8% below 2019 levels and, while further recovery is anticipated in 2023, global and domestic economic challenges mean that the market will remain below pre-pandemic levels.
