Fleet and private registrations in the UK declined in May, with overall diesel take-up also showing a large downturn.

Overall UK new car demand fell 8.5% in May to 186,265 cars registered.

The figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show that overall UK new car demand fell 8.5% last month to 186,265 cars registered, with the organisation attributing the downturn to the general election as well as the new VED rates.

The fleet market fell 5.3% to 103,657 units from 109,489 units in May 2016, while private registrations were down 14.0% to 76,554 units from 89,054 units. In contrast, the sub-25 ‘business’ market was up 20.1%, from 5,042 units to 6,054.

Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, responded: “We expected demand in the new car market to remain negative in May due to the pull-forward to March – which was an all-time record month – resulting from VED reform. Added to this, the general election was always likely to give many pause for thought and affect purchasing patterns in the short term.”

Of particular note was the 20.0% decline in overall diesel registrations, which fell from 101,844 units to 81,489. However, the alternatively fuelled vehicle segment rebounded following April’s decline, rising 46.7% to 8,258 units and taking a new record market share of 4.4%. Petrol registrations remained static, with a 0.4% rise to 96,518 units.

Year-to-date performance saw just a slight dip, down -0.6% to 1.2 million cars, with the fleet market up 2.4% to 589,161 units while business registrations were ahead 5.3% to 46,319 units and private registrations down 4.2% to 522,877. For the first five months of the year, diesel registrations fell 8.8%, with AFVs up 27.2% and petrol up 5.8%.

Looking ahead, the SMMT said it expects the market to remain strong over the year while KPMG maintained its forecast for 2017 new car sales at 2.5 million, falling from the all-time record of 2.7 million in 2016, with the company saying it expects a steady cooling of sales over the rest of the year.

John Leech, head of automotive at KPMG UK, added: “Car manufacturers have switched their attention from the UK market to Europe in response to the sterling’s weakness and stronger consumer demand in the EU. German car sales were up 13% and French car sales were up 8%.”