Growth of car sales in the UK is the fastest in two years

Growth of car sales in the UK is the fastest in two years

Compared with July last year, vehicle sales have risen by 9.3% to 143,884, which has been the car industry's leading sales performance so far this year, and the fifth sequential monthly upturn. Total car sales so far this year are up by 3.5% to 1.2 million vehicles.

This rise is thought to be because of the intensification of private car sales, rising by 26.4% over this year so far. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, who promote and support the UK automotive industry, have adjusted their full year forecasts to almost 2 million car sales, an increase of about 30,000. The chief exec of SMMT, Paul Everitt, has mentioned that the demand for vehicles may indeed slow down over the remaining months of this year, but on looking at the figures for vehicle registrations, it shows that car buyers are looking for economical and efficient motors.

Recorded sales of alternatively fuelled and hybrid vehicles have risen by around 46% over the past year, whilst the sales of smaller cars has shot up by 93.4%. Market leaders are still the Ford Fiesta, closely followed by Vauxhall's Astra and Corsa.

The increase in vehicle sales may be in response to the constrained demand that was caused by the ripples though the market that the government's scrappage incentive scheme caused, however the it is still down on 2007's 2.4 million cars sold.

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