Biggest September for new car sales since 2004

The latest car registration figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders show a 5.6% increase to 425,861 units in September 2014; compared with September 2013. David Raistrick, UK Automotive Leader at Deloitte, comments:

“With the UK new car market having contributed nearly 30% of the absolute growth in new car sales achieved across Europe by the end of August, relief will be felt across the industry as today’s new car sales figures for the UK continue to provide a consistent good news story.  The month of September is the second most important month of the UK new car sales calendar and the latest results would suggest that 2014 will deliver total new car sales in line with industry predictions.

Behind the numbers

If the new car sales are representative of the performance of the UK economy, there are further signs that confidence within the business sector is improving. Fleet and business car sales are now seeing the sort of growth that has been provided by private sales over the past two and half years. This contributed to diesel sales exceeding petrol sales at the end of August, though the private buyer continues to be attracted by the lower fuel consumption levels offered by diesel power.

Looking back twelve months, little seems to have changed in the way that the UK and European automotive markets are performing. The UK market has consolidated its position as the second largest market for new cars after Germany and is almost a third larger than France in third place. The German market has returned to growth but at a significantly lower level than the UK as it continues to be affected by weaker performance in the wider European market. From a production perspective, even with extended factory shut downs during August, UK production levels were up 1% on 2013 with nearly 83% of all UK manufactured cars being for the exported market.

End

Notes to editors

About Deloitte
In this press release references to Deloitte are references to Deloitte LLP, which is among the country's leading professional services firms.

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