New car registrations rose by 270% between August and September, spurred on by the new ‘69’ reg, Statistics from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show.
August saw 92,573 registrations, while September saw a whopping 343,255. Sales traditionally receive a boost in March and September, when new license plates are issued. Compared with last September, sales rose 1.3%, going against the general trend of the automotive industry.
The report also features the UK’s top 10 most popular new cars in September. The Vauxhall Corsa was the UK’s most popular car, narrowly beating fellow supermini the Ford Fiesta to the title.
Third was Mercedes-Benz’s A-Class, followed by the MINI.
Surprisingly, neither Ford Focus or Volkswagen Golf broke into the top five, despite their usual status as lock-ins for the top four. Instead, they took fifth and sixth, beaten by the Nissan Quashqai.
The final three top sellers were Kia’s Sportage, Ford’s Kuga, and BMW’s 3 Series.
Dropping demand for diesel continued, with year-on-year registrations dropping just over 20%. On the other hand, petrol cars saw sales rise 4.5%, and plug-in hybrid registrations rose 22.6%.
By the same measure, the largest rises were mild hybrid diesel cars at 678%, electric vehicles rose 236%, and mild hybrid petrols sold 92% more. However, these vehicles still make up a fraction of the market – 5.4%. The lion’s share is still split between petrol and diesel, at 92% between them.
However, rising sales of part and fully electric cars show that while the public hasn’t yet fully warmed up to electric driving, the future may well belong to the plug rather than the pump.
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