NEWS: UK new car sales stagnate in September but electric cars surge

Electric cars increased their market share across the UK, seeing 33,000 vehicles registered in September, but semiconductor shortage means another slow month on the whole for new vehicle registrations.

Fewer new cars were sold in September 2021 than any previous September since 1998, when buyers held-off on their purchases in anticipation of the imminent switch to bi-annual number plate introduction.

215,312 brand new cars found homes last month, which is 34.4 per cent fall on September last year, meaning there's been a slump on top of a slump. In 2020 weak sales were attributable to the Covid lockdowns, but the latest figure is partly down to the fact that manufacturers can't secure supplies of essential semiconductors used in vehicles.

This doesn't mean the market isn't busy though, this September proved to be our biggest September to date, with customers opting to get their orders in and hold out any delivery concerns.

September is traditionally one of the busiest months for the new car market, but the latest figure is a whopping 44.7 per cent down on the ten year average pre-pandemic, but this is only on vehicle registrations, not orders.

The continuing increase in uptake of electric cars (EVs) saw nearly 33,000 new battery-powered cars roll out of showrooms in September, which is 15.2 per cent of the total number of cars sold - and only 5,000 or so cars shy of the total EV market in 2019.

Here at XLCR Vehicle Management, we saw the push towards electric vehicles continue, with our biggest selling vehicle, once again being the Tesla Model 3. Just one ICE (Internal Combustion Engine)  vehicle made up our top 5 biggest selling vehicles in September.

Our top 5 best selling cars were;

1.       Tesla Model 3 (EV)

2.       Mercedes-Benz EQA (EV)

3.       Polestar 2 (EV) 

4.       Audi Q4 (EV)

5.       Volkswagen Tiguan.

With the Tesla, Polestar and EQA having immediate availability, we're pretty confident we will see these three remain in our biggest selling vehicles for the remainder of 2021.