The UK car market grew by 14.8% in April to 163,357 units, as the UK car market continued to perform strongly, though the monthly gain was boosted by additional working days versus last year.
UK car sales in the first four months of 2013 grew 8.9% to 768,555 units. April secured the strongest growth in 14 months as buying cycles and market volatility combined to boost uptake.
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Growth followed a further rise in private registrations, up almost a third on April last year.
The UK new car market continues to outperform EU27’s market performance.
Positive Q1 growth led to SMMT revising up its full year market forecast to 2.106m units, which would be a 3% increase on 2012.
“The UK new car market continues to perform surprisingly strongly, with volumes again increasing in April. While the headline increase was up almost 15% there were more sales days this year than last,” said SMMT Interim Chief Executive, Mike Baunton. “The UK continues to perform well ahead of the troubled Eurozone as consumer confidence, regular purchase cycles, attractive finance deals and wider market factors continue to make new car buying favourable for motorists.”
Growth in the UK car market has been supported by the private retail sector, where volumes were up 32.3% in the month and grew 15.2% over the year-to-date. Fleet and business volumes also rose in both the month and the year-to-date.
The Mini segment continues to post the best growth, while the Supermini segment remains the largest segment. All segments, except Upper Medium, posted growth during April and the year-to-date.
The Ford Fiesta was the best selling model in April and so far this year.
SMMT revised upwards its full year forecast in April to 2.106m units (from 2.057m in January), a 3% rise on 2012 volumes. This figure is still some 300,000 units off the pre-recession market. Further growth to 2.123m units is expected in 2014.
David Raistrick, UK Manufacturing leader for consultants Deloitte, noted that the UK is now the second largest market for new car sales in Europe. “Sales are 39% ahead of France and 70% ahead of Italy. With no automotive green shoots showing in continental Europe, it will be natural for OEMs to be looking closely on the UK market over the coming months.”
Raistrick also noted that the decline to demand on the continent remains a big concern for the industry.
Car production in the UK declined in March as the industry felt the effects of weaker demand in Europe. Data from the SMMT showed that UK car manufacturing fell 6.3% in March to 126,909 units. In the first quarter car production declined by 2% to 393,416 units.
April Top Ten models
1 Fiesta 8,083
2 Corsa 6,084
3 Focus 5,944
4 Golf 5,283
5 Astra 4,244
6 Qashqai 3,761
7 Polo 3,630
8 500 3,037
9 208 2,975
10 A3 2,935
Jan-April Top Ten
1 Fiesta 42,392
2 Focus 31,025
3 Corsa 30,645
4 Astra 21,446
5 Golf 21,009
6 Qashqai 18,362
7 Polo 15,383
8 208 14,083
9 Juke 12,788
10 500 12,654
