Figures released by the SMMT show that UK new car registrations were down by 24.8% year-on-year in May at 134,858 units.
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However, the SMMT noted that there has been an ‘encouraging start’ to the government’s scrappage scheme.
“While consumer confidence is improving, the UK motor industry is still facing a difficult economic climate,” said SMMT chief executive, Paul Everitt. “We have seen an encouraging start to the scrappage incentive scheme with 35,000 orders being placed since it was announced, although it will take time to feed into registration figures.”
May’s 24.8% market drop was slightly down on the 27.9% decline recorded over the first five months of 2009.
The SMMT said the May fall was evident across all sales types, although in May private demand was down a relatively modest 13.8%. In part this reflects the fall in private demand last year, but is also likely to be an early sign of revival under the scrappage scheme.
Diesel penetration fell for a second successive month, from 44.8% in May 2008 to 44.0% this May. This reflects the shift towards smaller cars, which tend to be petrol engined.
The mini segment was the only segment to record volume growth, up 50.3%. The supermini segment saw market share rise, from 32.2% to 34.6%, and Ford’s Fiesta was again the overall market’s best seller in both the month and year-to-date.
Year-to-date (first five months) Top Ten sellers
1 Fiesta 48,182
2 Focus 38,655
3 Corsa 35,732
4 Astra 23,330
5 Golf 21,800
6 P207 17,034
7 Insignia 15,596
8 A3 15,033
9 Mondeo 13,966
10 3 Series 13,580
