Six year high for new car sales

Six year high for new car sales

2013 has proved to be not only a bumper year for new car sales, with over 2.2 million new vehicles being registered, but was also the peak of a six year climb in the sales figures.

With 2,264,737 new vehicles being registered in 2013 according to the SMMT (Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders), this means sales rose by more than 10% over figures from 2012. It also represents the highest sales amount annually since just before the recession in 2007.

Looking at the SMMT's sales figures we can also see that new car sales have been increasing every month for the past 22 months, with December 2013 itself having a sales increase of 23.76% over the same month in 2012. All-in-all, 2013 saw on average an additional 600 cars registered every day.

Last year also saw over 1 million private sale registrations, itself an increase of 15% over 2012 figures. The market for petrol-powered vehicles rose to 48.8% in 2013 from 47.8% in 2012, and the diesel market fell slightly, from 50.8% in 2013 to 49.8% in 2013. Electric vehicles sales maintained their 1.4% market share, and the most popular build of car in the market was the supermini again, with 36% of all 2013 sales consisting of them. However, SUVs are busy biting on their heels.

The chief executive of the SMMT, Mike Hawes, commented that the performance of the new car market has done much to help the UK's economy recover, and indeed has done much better than the rest of Europe. The SMMT also expect that figures of new registrations will stay stable over 2014.

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