New Car Sales DOWN by 44.4% in March – expect TWICE that drop for April

New car registration figures for March 2020 released by the SMMT show new car registrations down by 44.4 per cent as Covid-19 bites.

March, since the car registration year was split in to two, is normally one of the hottest months of the year for new car registrations but, as you’d expect, March 2020 is no ordinary month for new car registrations.

Yes, there was growing concern about the Covid-19 out break at the start of the month, but as the month went on it all become much more stark and confining and now a big chunk of the population is in lockdown and the economy put in the deep freeze. And that is reflected in the new car registration figures for the month.

Actually, it could have been a lot worse, and it looks like a lot of the orders for March were registered right at the start of the month so numbers held up quite well, all things considered, at 254,684, down by 203,370 on March 2019 – a 44.4 per cent drop.

Demand for petrol cars fell by 40 per cent and diesel cars by 62 per cent, but sales of BEVs were actually up by 300 per cent – down to the new rules on BIK for EVs from this month – with 11,694 sold, and plug-in hybrid sales also grew by 38 per cent.

Unless something dramatic happens any day now to end the economy lockdown, expect new car sales/registrations to tank to the level they have in much of Europe – juts 15 per cent of normal levels – in April.