UK Car Sales on Track for Strong Year in 2024

The UK car sales market is showing promising signs of recovery post-pandemic, with over a million registrations in the first half of 2024. If this trend continues, the country could surpass the two million mark for the first time since 2019, a record-breaking year with 2.3 million registrations.

Year-on-year, the 1,006,763 registrations for the first half of 2024 are down by 20.7% compared to 2019 but up by 6% from 2023. In June, sales saw a modest 1.1% increase to 179,263, driven mainly by fleet sales which rose by 14.2%. However, private sales continued to decline for the ninth consecutive month, dropping by 15.3%.

SMMT chief Mike Hawes attributed the decline in private sales to a challenging economic environment and called for government support to boost the adoption of electric vehicles. In June, EV sales increased by 7.4% from May, with plug-in hybrids and hybrids also seeing significant growth.

Despite the overall rise in car sales, private EV sales were down by 10.8% compared to June 2023. Hawes emphasized the importance of accelerating the transition to zero-emission vehicles to meet carbon reduction goals.

As the market shows signs of improvement, there are still challenges ahead. The automotive industry is looking towards the government to provide support and incentives for a faster and fairer transition to electric vehicles.