New car sales in the UK DOWN in September – but they’re really not that bad.

New car sales in the UK continue to suffer from Covid, down 4.4 per cent on 2019 and down by 15.8 per cent on a 10-year average.

The gist of the new car registrations/sales for September 2020 press release from the SMMT is pretty much doom and gloom, with numbers down by 4.4 per cent on 2019 to 328,041.

That number looks worse if you take a ten-year average of September figures, as 2019’s numbers were hit by WLTP compliance issues and if you look at numbers over the last decade then 2020 is down by 15.8 per cent – the lowest figure since the two-plate a year system arrived in 1999.

But it still means 328,000 people/businesses felt confident enough to jump in to a new car, which with all the potential for impending doom with furlough ending and increased lcokdwon looming this month seems a bit of a result.

There is good news too for BEVs, with registrations up 184.3 per cent, and BEVs and PHEVs combined took 10 per cent of registrations.

There are some interesting winners too, with MG recording a record sales tally up by 169 per cent, although Alfa fell out of bed, down 34 per cent – and some interesting Top Ten entrants with the new Ford Puma (probably nicking a few Fiesta sales on the way), and the Volvo XC40 beating the Ford Focus.

Mike Hawes, SMMT Chief Executive,?said:

During a torrid year, the automotive industry has demonstrated incredible resilience, but this is not a recovery. Despite the boost of a new registration plate, new model introductions and attractive offers, this is still the poorest September since the two-plate system was introduced in 1999.

Unless the pandemic is controlled and economy-wide consumer and business confidence rebuilt, the short-term future looks very challenging indeed.