New car sales in Wales have stagnated.
Figures from the SMMT yesterday show 5,591 new cars were registered last month compared to 5,566 in the first month of 2015, so they have increased by under half-percent.
This contrasts with 2% and 3.59% rises in Scotland and England, while Northern Ireland saw a big 2.63% drop over the month. Overall the combined new registrations of 169,245 marked the highest January total for 11 years.
Private and business buyers drove this growth with demand for new cars up by 8.2% to 73,061 and 5.0% to 6,716 units respectively, while the fleet sector declined slightly by 1.1% to 89,901. The month marks the highest number of new cars registered to private buyers in January in 12 years.1
Alternative-fuel vehicles also grew in popularity – and market share – with registrations up by 32.1% on January 2015, to account for a record 3.6% of registrations. Petrol hybrids showed the largest growth – up 44.1% to 3,783 cars, while plug-in hybrid demand grew 32.3% to 1,592 vehicles and pure electric cars enjoyed an uplift of 14.1% to 584 units. Demand for diesel, which just retained the majority market share, remained stable, up 0.6%, while petrol registrations grew 3.7%.
However, Volkswagen cars fell by 14 percent in the UK and it was the fourth consecutive monthly drop after VW admitted in September to cheating diesel emissions tests.
| In Wales, the top ten were: | |
| Ford Fiesta | Volkswagen Polo |
| Vauxhall Corsa | Dacia Sandero |
| Ford Focus | Volkswagen Golf |
| Vauxhall Mokka | Ford Ecosport |
| Ford Kuga | Ford C-Max |
After a record 2015, registrations of vans in the UK levelled off in January with a 4.3% fall in demand compared with the same month last year, according to the SMMT. Figures show 21,102 new light commercial vehicles (LCVs) were registered in January – the first month of decline since July 2015.
