New car sales in the UK nudge UP (just) in 2021 – Vauxhall Corsa the best-seller

New car sales in the UK in 2021 were up by 1 per cent on 2021 – although 29 per cent below pre-covid 2019. Vauxhall Corsa is the best-seller.

The last couple of years in the car industry has been pretty dismal, first with Covid wreaking havoc on production followed by a shortage of ‘Chips’ as the world’s appetite for ‘smart’ devices went berserk in lockdown.

The ‘Covid and Cips’ problems continue – and are likely to continue well in to 2022 too – resulting in headline figures for UK sales in 2021 nudging up by a dismal 1% on 2020’s Covid-hit numbers.

The headline numbers for 2021 are a total of 1.65 million cars registered, up from 1.63 million in 2020 but down by 25 per cent on pre-Covid 2019.

Unsurprisingly, and not just because of demand but also because of production priorities, sales of electrified cars rose significantly with 11.6 per cent of cars sold BEVs – and a further 7 per cent PHEVs – meaning more BEVs were sold in 2021 than in the previous five years combined.

Aside from electrified cars, petrol took the lion’s share of the market with 58 per cent of sales, with diesel accounting for just 14.2 per cent.

In terms of the biggest-selling cars of 2021, Ford lost its best-seller crown for the first time in 50 years, with the usually top-ranked Ford Fiesta not even in the top ten – the only Ford in the top 10 being the Puma at number eight – with the Vauxhall Corsa the best-seller and the Tesla Model 3 at number two.