Corsa still UK’s best-selling car as Polo is top in August
New car market rose by 1.2 per cent last month, according to new figures
The Vauxhall Corsa remains the UK’s best-selling new car, according to the latest new car registration figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
With 1,608 sold in August, and 25,941 in total for the first eight months of 2022, the Corsa has outsold every other passenger car so far this year.
The Corsa was the fourth bestselling car in the UK in August, with the Volkswagen Polo (1,902), Ford Puma (1,875) and Hyundai Tucson (1,739) making up the top three. The Volkswagen T-Roc (1,460) completes the top five.
The Puma is the year’s second-best selling car (21,881), with the Nissan Qashqai (20,023) in third.
The UK new car market rose by 1.2 per cent in August, according to the SMMT figures.
The growth, albeit marginal, is the first seen since February, with some 68,858 new vehicles joining the road during what is typically the second quietest month of the year as many buyers choose to wait for a ‘new’ numberplate in September.
Despite the growth, August volumes were still the weakest for the month, bar 2021, since 2013 as supply chain pressures continued to constrain the market.
Large fleet registrations fell by -1.6 per cent, although this was offset by a 3.2 per cent increase in deliveries to private consumers. Business customers saw the largest increase of 26.6 per cent, but the sector is small in volume and subject to volatility.
Overall growth in the month was driven primarily by battery electric vehicles (BEVs), which recorded a 35.4 per cent increase in volumes and a 14.5 per cent market share.
However, growth in this segment is slowing, with a year-to-date increase of 48.8 per cent, whereas at the end of Q1, BEV registrations had been up by 101.9 per cent.
Plug-in Hybrid (PHEV) registrations fell by -23.1 per cent to comprise 5.6 per cent of monthly registrations.
As a result, plug-in vehicles accounted for one in five (20.2 per cent) of August’s registrations.
Hybrid electric vehicle registrations remained relatively stable, falling by 0.7 per cent.
Superminis remained the most popular vehicle class, growing market share to 34.0 per cent as 7.4 per cent more of them were delivered to customers than in August 2021.
Multi-purpose, luxury saloon and lower medium vehicles also recorded growth of 31.0 per cent, 1.5 per cent and 1.3 per cent respectively, while registrations of all other segments declined.
Year to date, registrations are down by -10.7 per cent on last year at 983,099 units – more than a third (-35.3 per cent) lower than during the first eight months of pre-pandemic 2019 – demonstrating the scale of the challenge ahead in terms of recovery.