Wales bucked the trend as summer burned new car dealers with sales down 3.5% in June, according to figures from the SMMT.
The news came on the day that JLR said it would have to reconsider planned UK investment if there is a “bad” Brexit deal, possibly close some British factories and make thousands redundant.
Six months ago, JLR announced cuts at Halewood, said it wouldn’t renew contracts for 1,000 Solihull workers from April, and last month declared it will build the Discovery in Slovakia. It does however intend to increase jobs on its Midlands Range Rover lines to build an electric version in two years time.
The UK drop in June sales to 234,945 accelerated because of diesel dipping over 28% and wasn’t offset by a huge increase in petrol or hybrid sales. Van sales slid 5.8% as well.
Ford maintained its hold over the UK car market despite a drop in total registrations last month but it’s getting chased by Volkswagen, which is just ahead of Vauxhall. MG was most improved brand with sales up over 177%.
So far this year overall car registrations are down 6.3% to 1.3M new cars, reported the SMMT.
Behind the UK figures, Wales’ registrations rose 2.5% to 7,334 last month and took sales for the first half of 2018 to 43,401 about 4.6% below the same time last year.
| Wales | June | UK |
| Fiesta 442 | Fiesta 8900 | |
| Corsa 230 | Golf 6873 | |
| Focus 214 | Corsa 6076 | |
| Kuga 182 | MINI 5839 | |
| Polo 161 | Polo 5494 | |
| Aygo 157 | Focus 4840 | |
| Ecosport 145 | 3 Series 4002 | |
| Golf 144 | Qashqai 3939 | |
| Mini 142 | Tiguan 3527 | |
| Qashqai 110 | 1 Series 3383 |
| Wales | January to June | UK |
| Fiesta 2705 | Fiesta 56415 | |
| Focus 1323 | Golf 39930 | |
| Kuga 1199 | Focus 30757 | |
| Golf 931 | Qashqai 30066 | |
| Corsa 896 | Corsa 28003 | |
| MokkaX 830 | MINI 23641 | |
| Polo 796 | Polo 22027 | |
| Sandero 795 | Kuga 21784 | |
| Qashqai 769 | A Class 20002 | |
| Ecosport 754 | C Class 19684 |
Sean Kemple, Director of Sales at Close Brothers Motor Finance, said, “It’s been a disappointing June, but dealers shouldn’t lose confidence in the market.
“This month follows two strong consecutive months of increased new car registrations. Alternatively fuelled vehicles have seen a steady rise in demand, and petrol sales are also reassuringly strong.
“However, June also saw the SMMT release a harsh warning about the impact of Brexit on both production output and demand to the UK motor industry, and we’ve certainly seen some hesitance from consumers when it comes to big ticket purchases.
“This is exacerbated by the uncertainty around diesel, which is having a fierce impact on diesel sale figures.”
