UK Witnesses Highest February New Car Sales in Two Decades

Last month saw the UK's latest car market hitting its peak February sales since 2004, with electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles carving into the market share of petrol, diesel, and 'self-charging' hybrids.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) survey tells that a total of 84886 new cars were sold in February 2024, marking a 14.0% surge compared to the same period last year.

The SMMT highlighted that the entire growth was fueled by fleet demand, with new car sales to fleets rising by 25.2% compared to February 2023.

In the meantime, shipments to individuals dropped by 2.6%, with the SMMT attributing this to consumer anticipation of the March numberplate switch, citing February's historical volatility.

Correspondingly, PHEVs and electric vehicles saw the most notable surge in sales volume, with PHEV sales increasing by 29.1% year-over-year to 6098, and EV sales rising by 21.8% year-over-year to 14,991.

This translated to market shares of 7.2% and 17.7% for the respective powertrains.

The SMMT noted: "While BEV market share and volumes continue to rise in the initial year of mandated manufacturer targets, the increase in adoption is primarily driven by fleet purchases, buoyed by attractive fiscal incentives.

"Individual purchasers make up less than 20% (18.2%) of recent registrations of new BEVs."

The industry association has urged for a 50% reduction in VAT on new electric vehicles for three years, revisions to proposed changes in VED for EVs, and a decrease in VAT on public charging to 5%, aligning with home charging rates.

Gasoline vehicles continue to dominate the market in the UK, representing 56.6% of sales in February. While this is slightly lower than last year's 56.9%, petrol deliveries still increased by 13.3% to 48,001 units.

The popularity of hybrids saw a slight dip, with market share slipping from 12.9% in February 2023 to 12.7% last month, despite a 12.1% uptick in sales volume to 10,801 units.

Diesel cars experienced a decline, dropping from 5397 sales in February 2023 to 4995, marking a 7.4% decrease and reducing market share from 7.3% to 5.9%.

February's top-selling car in the UK was the Ford Puma, maintaining its lead from 2023 with 2535 sales, followed by the Volkswagen Golf at 2203 and the Volkswagen T-Roc at 1986.

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Source and Image: AutoCar