The UK April new car market fell by 7.4% to 137,746 units. This was the 10th successive monthly decline in volumes, but the SMMT said that the market was ‘ahead of expectations despite challenging conditions’.
The SMMT said the market was 1.5% ahead of forecast and on par with the 2010 market with scrappage volumes removed.
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New car sales over the first four months of 2011 were down 8.5% to 696,082 units.
Despite economic and supply chain uncertainty, SMMT’s full year forecast remains at 1.93m units.
The market is then expected to recover in 2012, back above two million units. However, there remains uncertainty over buyer confidence and from possible short-term supply constraints caused by the earthquake in Japan. SMMT forecasts the market to slow in quarter two, but then recover in quarter three.
The SMMT said that fleet demand remains robust, up 6.5% in April, while diesel volumes also recorded strong growth.
“New car registrations in April demonstrated continued stability in the marketplace, with demand remaining lower than in 2010, although slightly ahead of industry expectations,” said Paul Everitt, SMMT Chief Executive.
“The coming months will remain challenging, but we do expect to see a return to growth in the second half of the year.”
Diesel cars represented 52.7% of the total market in April and have shown year-on-year growth in every month of 2011. The VW Golf was the best selling diesel in April. Alternatively fuelled car registrations rose by 48.1% in April.
The Ford Fiesta was the top selling car overall in the month and year-to-date. Registrations of small cars have generally fallen, again reflecting the impact of the scrappage scheme. Registrations of dual purpose and MPV segment cars were amongst those showing strong growth in the month.
