British vehicles market keeps momentum in 2024. Sales in March have been 317.786 (+10.4%) confirming the previous two month performance. Year to Date figures at 545.548 are up 10.4%
Market Trend and Outlook
The new car passengers market in Great Britain starts the 2024 keeping the momentum started in the previous year, reporting a first quarter double-digit growth.
Sales in March have been 317.786 (+10.4%) confirming the previous two month performance. Year to Date figures at 545.548 are up 10.4%
Looking at brand ranking Year to Date, Volkswagen is still the leader with 41.331 sales (+0.8%).
BMW jumped in second place with an outstanding performance and 36.771 sales (+42.3% gaining 6.7% of market share.
In third place Nissan -up 3 spots- with 33.403 sales (+28.7%), followed by Kia with 33.084 (+2.6%), Ford with 32.567 (-10.6%) and Audi with 32.462 (-0.7%).
In seventh place Opel (Vauxhall) with 28.664 (+25.4%) ahead of Mercedes -down 1 spot- with 28.543 (+20.5%), Toyota with 26.193 (-17.5%).
In tenth place Hyundai -down 2 spots- with 23.480 (-2.5%).
Looking at best selling models, the leader was the Ford Puma with 15.054 sales (+57.5%) followed by the Nissan Qashqai with 15.555 (+31.4%) and the Kia Sportage with 13.632 (+42.6%).
Medium-Term Market Trend
The decline of the British vehicles market was already in place since a couple of decades, with the relocation of several manufacturing activities in other low cost European countries, but the exit from the European Community has further accelerated the process, starting from the long discussions about BREXIT.
Indeed the market reached a record level in 2016 (2.6 million annual sales) and then started to decline. The pandemic in 2020 further accelerated the process pushing the industry down to 1.6 million and rather than recovering, it seems that the market direction is still down.
In the following two years, in fact, the British market didn’t perform quite well. In 2021 volume remained relatively flat, with sales rising merely 0.7% and in 2022 the market dropped further, losing 1.6%.
Indeed, the effects of current global threats, including record inflation rate, increased fuel price, political instability, transition to electrification, raw materials shortage, are emphasized in UK by the economic effects of BREXIT.
In 2023 the market finally reported a relevant increase with sales improved 17% at 1.9 million.
Tables with sales figures
In the tables below we report sales for the top 40 Brands and top 10 Manufacturers Groups and the top 10 models.
