UK car sales remain ‘shining beacon’, says Deloitte

For the first seven months of the year, a total of 1,325,851 new cars have been registered, up 10.3% on the same period in 2012.

Commenting on the figures, Mr Raistrick said: ‘With European new car sales, excluding the UK, reporting a 9.8% reduction for the first six months of the year, the strength of the growth in the UK car market stands out as a phenomenal success story with seventeen months of successive growth. Admittedly, the growth has been achieved against the relatively depressed post 2007 years and overall sales are not anticipated to reach the pre-recession level of 2.4 million this year. However, the UK remains the shining beacon as other EU member states continue to struggle with the challenges of financial constraint and overcapacity in the wider European market.’

Looking at what’s behind the numbers, he added: ‘What has been noticeable in comparing the UK market with Europe is that there has been a broad spread of growth across the manufacturers in the UK, whether they are mass producers, prestige or more budget providers. This is in sharp contrast to Europe where apart from a couple of notable exceptions, it is mainly the value brand offerings of OEMs which have achieved any noticeable growth. This would suggest that the UK consumer currently appears to have more confidence in the economic outlook and is taking the opportunity to benefit from the low rate finance options which remain widely available.’

He added: ‘As a result of the financial challenges still faced across Europe, the move towards alternatively fuelled vehicles has also unsurprisingly stalled by comparison to original expectations. The consumer is staying loyal to the tried and trusted petrol and diesel offerings despite the increasing fuel prices. The high initial purchase prices and ownership challenges associated with electric vehicles and the required investment by member states to provide an EU-wide usable charging network appear to be restricting the levels of ownership for the time being. That said, there is 70% growth in the purchases of plug-in electric vehicles in the UK, albeit from a small initial base, with total unit sales being less than 2000 year to date. Looking forward five years, and particularly with the improving technology across all alternatively fuelled vehicles, one has to expect the total market penetration will continue to rise for both plug-in EV’s and hybrids.’