The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said vehicle registrations for the month of June dropped 3.5% drop year-on-year.
The collapse in diesel registrations continued, with a fall of 28.2% in June year-on-year. Comparatively Alternative Fuel Vehicles (AFVs) showed a 45% rise, from 15,549 registrations this year from 10,721 in June 2017.
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Ian Plummer, director at AutoTrader, said: “Every month seems to bring more negative news about diesel, but the bright spot for the industry in June’s figures is that electric and hybrid sales are really starting to gain traction and pick up some of the slack. If current trends continue, it probably won’t be much more than a couple of years until AFVs overtake diesel in sales volumes.”
Registrations of petrol vehicles are also up 12.3% year on year, and now take up a 61.7% share of the market. Registrations of Ford Fiestas passed the 50,000 mark for the year, and the Nissan Qashqai 30,000. Ford continues to have the largest marque market share, now at 11.13%. Luxury car manufactures in the UK have shown a rise, Aston Martin and Bentley up 5.36% and 36.31% respectively year-on-year.
2017 showed the first drop in year-on-year registrations since 2011, and there would need to be a significant increase in the remainder of this year for the downward registrations trend to reverse. Sue Robinson, director of the NFDA, said: “The market appears to be recovering after a challenging year so far, with Q2 sales up 2.3%, and we look forward to a more positive second half of the year.”
Last month the SMMT called on the government to deliver a Brexit deal that keeps Britain in the European customs union and maintains single market benefits.
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