The UK car market showed no slowdown in growth as it entered its 29th month of continuous expansion in registrations, posting a 6.6% rise year-on-year in July according to the latest data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

July confirmed that the first half of 2014 had already exceeded expectations for growth in sales in the UK market, as 172,907 cars were registered in that month alone. This pushed the total for the year-to-date to 1,460,172 vehicles, up 10.1% on the year before.

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As a result, the SMMT has once again revised their estimates for total sales in 2014 upwards. The trade body now believes that the UK market will register 2.45 million vehicles, up from an earlier estimate of 2.4 million and far greater than the 2.3 million estimated at the beginning of the year.

Mike Hawes, chief executive of the SMMT, said: "July saw the new car market extend its record period of growth to a 29th month, as confident consumers took advantage of an array of new products and attractive finance deals on the latest fuel-efficient new cars.
July’s year-on-year rise of 6.6% is up slightly on June’s 6.2% climb but marginally lower than the 7.7% increase in May, indicating a stabilisation in the market.

Chris Sutton, managing director of Black Horse, said: "The UK automotive sector is clearly one of the success stories of the UK economic recovery with yet another month of increased new car sales albeit at a more moderate pace than we have recently witnessed, a likely indication that growth may stabilise over the forthcoming months. Consumers are clearly being influenced by improved fuel efficient cars and attractive finance deals that manufacturers are working hard to offer. In a very competitive market, consumers will also be eagerly awaiting new models that will be arriving on the market which we would anticipate will further add to an increase in new car sales in the second half of 2014. "

Alternative fuels up, along with Škoda

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Alternatively fuelled vehicles did continue their strong growth in July, up 35.4% on the same period year-on-year, but the market remained in four figures with total registrations of 3,292, less than the biggest selling car model that month. The Ford Fiesta continued to outsell all other cars with 8,854 registered; 2,200 more than the next biggest selling car, the Ford Focus.

With 13.68% market share, Ford also managed to maintain its lead despite dropping from 15.78% market share the year before. Prestige car manufacturers did best in July, with BMW, Mercedes and Audi all posting over 10% jumps in market share. BMW actually posted an 18.6% rise in market share to 5.76% in July, making it the second most successful of the top ten by market share in terms of increasing market share.

BMW’s rise could not match the continued ascendency of Škoda. The Czech manufacturer saw its share of the market rise by 54.6% compared to the same period in 2013. With 4.39% of the market, they are close to overtaking Mercedes’ 4.86% share and at current rates will do so by the end of 2014.

Private sales once again began to encroach on the market share of fleet registrations in July. Total private registrations were 76,738, up 7.3% on the same period in 2013 and represented 44.4% of the market. This was an extra 0.3% of the market year-on-year. Fleet sales on the other hand were up 5.4% to 88, 256 from 83,763 but suffered a cut of 0.6% of their market share. Fleet was still over half of registration with a 51% market share, but in July 2013 the figure was 51.6%.

Business cars made up the difference, taking 4.6 % of the market compared to 4.3% in the same period of 2013.