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The UK new car market grew by 24% to reach 149,247 registrations last month, according to the latest figures published by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
Growth was recorded in all sectors, led by fleets, up 26.8% to 90,462 registrations. Private retail deliveries grew 20.2% to reach 56,116, while registrations by the smaller business sector rose 15% to 2,669.
Demand for petrol cars rose 8.2%, while diesel registrations fell -1.0%. Electrified cars accounted for more than half (53.2%) of the market for the second month this year. Plug-in hybrid (PHEV) registrations rose 46.4% to take a 13.8% market share, while hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) increased 18.8%, securing 13.2% of new registrations.
Marking a market milestone, April also saw the two millionth battery electric car registered (2,012,758), following growth of 59.1% compared with last year. As a result, BEV uptake reached a robust 26.2% share of registrations in the month. Year to date, BEVs comprise 23.1% of the overall new car market.
The new light commercial vehicle (LCV) market rose by 6.8% in April with 21,716 vans, pickups and 4x4s joining UK roads.
Performance was mixed, with overall growth driven by deliveries of large vans, up 28.5% to 15,561 units, representing 71.7% of all new LCVs registered. Medium-sized vans declined, meanwhile, by -20% to 3,476 units. In the smaller volume segments, registrations of 4x4s rose by 81.6% to 1,024 units, while small vans fell -14.4% to 489 units.
Demand for pickups declined again, down -57.4% to just 1,166 units, rounding off volume declines in 11 of the past 12 months – likely impacted by last April’s fiscal changes to treat double cabs as cars for Benefit in Kind purposes.
More positively, demand for battery electric vans (BEVs) grew strongly following a decline in March, up 44.7% with 2,439 registrations in April, although the year-to-date BEV share is still just 9.4%
