New car sales were down 24.8 per cent in May, the latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) reveal.
The month of May saw new car registrations stand at 134, 858, nearly a quarter down on the same month last year.
May saw the introduction of the government’s scrappage incentive scheme designed to boost car sales. It came into effect on 18 May and since the announcement of the scheme in the Budget over 35,000 orders were reported to the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR). Yet SMMT say many of these orders have yet to translate into new registrations and effectively boost sales.
Registrations over first five months of 2009 are down a total of 289,598 units or 27.9 per cent compared to the first five months of 2008, making May the13th month to record a straight decline in volume. On a rolling annual basis sales are down 555,663 units to 1.842 million units.
“While consumer confidence is improving, the UK motor industry is still facing a difficult economic climate,” said SMMT chief executive, Paul Everitt. “We have seen an encouraging start to the scrappage incentive scheme with 35,000 orders being placed since it was announced, although it will take time to feed into registration figures.”
There is one glimmer of hope, the mini segment continues to buck overall market trend and reports further growth. While diesel penetration fell for a second successive month, from 44.8 per cent in May 2008 to 44.0 per cent this May. This reflects the shift towards smaller cars, which tend to be petrol engined. The mini segment was the only segment to record volume growth, up 50.3 per cent. The supermini segment saw market share rise, from 32.2 per cent to 34.6 per cent, and Ford’s Fiesta was again the overall market’s best seller in both the month and year-to-date.
