UK Car sales in April were just 4,000 – down 97%

New car registrations in the UK fell by 97 per cent to just 4,321 as the UK’s car industry shut up shop in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

When we reported new car sales/ registrations for March at 44.4 per cent down as the car industry started to hibernate as the lockdown came in to play, we said you could probably expect that drop to be doubled in April.

In fact, new car sales/registrations for April were down a massive 97 per cent to just 4,321 cars, which looks to be the lowest monthly new car registrations since just after the end of WWII. 

Of course, it’s no surprise that registrations of new cars fell to an almost negligible amount under the circumstances, and it’s almost surprising that any new cars were registered at all.

Of the small number of cars that were registered in April, 70 per cent were fleet sales to companies and the rest to support key workers, and all probably supplied direct from car makers rather than through car dealers.

What this will mean for new car sales when car showrooms start to re-open is probably anyone’s guess. There’s an argument that the pent-up demand from the almost zero sales in April and the big drop in March – traditionally a big new car registration month thanks to the plate change – will see buyers hitting new car showrooms in droves.

But with so many likely to have seen their jobs and livelihoods decimated by the lockdown, it’s equally arguable that we’ll instead see car makers having to come up with big incentives to persuade cautious buyers to take the plunge in to more debt.