Best-selling cars exposed: UK sales love 9-per-cent leap
Almost Two.5m fresh cars hit the road in 2014, but lower growth predicted for 2015
- Sean O’Grady
- Wednesday seven January two thousand fifteen 11:07 GMT
After years of austerity, belt-tightening and extreme caution, the British consumer last year regained sufficient confidence to go out and buy a fresh car, albeit more often than not on some sort of finance deal.
So the UK’s fresh car sales were the best for a decade in 2014, according to the latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. Some Two,476,435 fresh cars hit British roads last year, the best result since 2004, and the fourth best year on record.
It represents a 9. Four per cent rise on the figure for 2013, and marks a decisive recovery from the innards of the recession, with about one million fresh cars more finding owners than in the period after the banking crash.
Fresh cars sales have grown for thirty four consecutive months, the SMMT reported. However, the outlook for this is year is less strong, with sales predicted to rise by about one to two per cent. Some eighty six per cent of the UK market is accounted for by imports, a level of invasion that has been sustained for some years now.
The UK is the 2nd largest market for fresh cars in Europe, behind Germany. The market was buoyed by rising economic confidence, fresh ultra-fuel efficient designs, and popular finance packages such as PCP (individual contract purchase, as well as a catch-up after the latest slump.
Mike Hawes, SMMT Chief Executive, commented: “UK fresh car registrations returned to pre-recession levels in 2014, as pent-up request from the recession years combined with confidence in the economy spotted consumer request for the latest models grow consistently and strongly.
“The year was particularly strong for alternatively-fuelled vehicles as enhanced choice, coupled with a growing desire for diminished costs and greater efficiency, resulted in a quadrupling of plug-in car registrations over 2013. With a multitude of fresh plug-in models expected in 2015, this area of the market will proceed to grow significantly. For the market as a entire, we expect a more stable two thousand fifteen as request levels off.”
However some observers have begun to question whether the enlargening dependence on PCP and similar schemes, leasing rather than buying vehicles, is merely storing up trouble for the future. Finance rather than cash is behind about 75% of fresh car purchases.
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UK car production, some eighty per cent of which is exported, also registered an increase, to around 1.5million vehicles, the highest since 1972. However Mr Hawes described this as a “slightly disappointing” result. About a half of British car exports go to the rest of the EU, which is predominated by the eurozone, and the continuing economic problems there had a negative influence on sales of British products.
Of the other markets, China and other emerging economies have slowed, while Russia, which takes about one in ten of British car exports, was epically depressed, hit by political uncertainty and the conflict in Ukraine.
A “solid year” of stable growth is predicted for 2015, with fresh products and engine lines expected to lift the home industry, including a fresh generation Vauxhall Astra for Ellesmere Port and the very first total year of production for the fresh Nissan Qashqai and fresh generation Mini.