May records highest car sales since 2002

June 7, 2016

A 4.1% increase in car registrations

Official figures show that 203,585 vehicles were registered in May which is the highest May figure since 2002. The main reason for this growth was fleet registrations. May, also saw a steady growth in the overall new car market of 2.5%, also a high for the month since 2002. The main reason for growth was fleet registrations which accounted for 8.8% rise in sales and balanced out a 3.0% fall in private registrations. Society of Motoring, Manufacturing and Traders (SMMT) figures show that there was 12.1% increase in the purchase of alternatively fuelled vehicles in May. Diesel-powered vehicle sales also grew, by 5.0%, while petrol models declined slightly, by 0.6%. The highest-selling car for May and the best-selling car of the year so far was the Ford Fiesta, with 52,476 sales in the UK so far in 2016. Vauxhall’s Corsa model is the second best selling model of the year with 33,519 sales so far despite the  being the second bestselling vehicle for May. Volkswagen, Seat and Skoda have all suffered a slight yeVolkswagen Golfar-on-year drop compared with the same period in 2015. Ford’s Focus was also in the top three of the best-selling cars in May while keeping the third spot for the year, despite suffering an overall drop in sales for 2016 compared with the same period last year down from 144,095 to 140,948. Citroën suffered the biggest year-on-year drop based on its 38,017 registrations for the year to May 2015 to 31,776 sales for 2016, despite a month-on-month increase of 91 sales. Overall sales for 2016 now sit at 1,164,870 registrations which is 4.1% more than the same time last year. The SMMT added that May represents the second consecutive month of a sub 3% growth in registrations which is an evidence of increasing market stability.