New car registrations in the UK rose by 28.3 per cent in July 2023, meaning new car registration have risen every month in the last year.
Marking a year of continuous growth, new car registration rose in July by an impressive 28.3 per cent – although that’s compared to a particularly poor figure for July 2022 – driven primarily by sales to fleets and businesses.
Sales to fleets rose by almost 62 per cent to 80,961 and business numbers by 28.7 per cent, but sales to private buyers were pretty much static at 60,045.
Cars with some form of electrification made up over a third of the registration, although that does include Hybrids and PHEVs as well as BEVs, with a big jump of 79.1 per cent for PHEVs and an even bigger jump for BEVs, up by 87.9 per cent for a market share of 16 per cent.
The top seller in July was the Ford Puma – which is also the best-seller so far this year – followed by a quartet of SUVs with the Kia Sportage in seconds place followed by the Nissan Qashqai, Vauxhall Mokka and Hyundai Tucson.
Mike Hawes, SMMT boss, said:
The industry remains committed to meeting the UK’s zero emission deadlines and continues to make the investments to get us there. Choice and innovation in the market are growing, so it’s encouraging to see more people switching on to the benefits of driving electric. With inflation, rising costs of living and a zero emission vehicle mandate that will dictate the market coming next year, however, consumers must be given every possible incentive to buy. Government must pull every lever, therefore, to make buying, running and, especially, charging an EV affordable and practical for every driver in every part of the country
What is clear is that the growth in new car registrations, particularly BEVs and PHEVs, is entirely driven by business registrations thanks to the tax breaks, with private buyers not joining the rush to BEVs.
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