The Society of Motor Manufacturers (SMMT) has said car showrooms reopening last month was “light at the end of the tunnel” for the industry, with new car registrations significantly up on April 2020.
The latest figures released by the SMMT show an artificial 30-fold increase of new car registrations compared to the same month last year, but volumes still remained 12.9% lower than the 10-year average at just 141,583 new units.
April 2021’s total dwarfed that recorded in the same month last year, when the first national lockdown closed all showrooms, with just 4,321 cars registered.
The society said retail saw the most significant recovery, with click and collect supporting the market.
Furthermore, the total plug-in vehicle market also followed the positive trend accounting for just over one in seven new vehicle registrations. Plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) equalled 6.8% of the market more popular than battery electric vehicles (BEVs) at 6.5%, SMMT said this could follow cuts to the Plug-in Car Grant.
While overall registrations for 2021 now stands at 567,108 units, this is down 32.5% on the average recorded over the past decade.
SMMT added the full impact of showrooms reopening has yet to be realised, given the delay between a customer initially visiting a dealership, deciding on a model and then taking delivery of that new vehicle is normally a number of weeks.
This factor and a more upbeat economic outlook on the back of the vaccine rollout and lockdown easing has led to SMMT revising its yearly forecast to 1.86 million new cars registrations, up from 1.83 million it predicted in February.
Mike Hawes, SMMT Chief Executive, said: “A full recovery for the sector is still some way off, but with showrooms open and consumers able to test drive the latest, cleanest models, the industry can begin to rebuild.
“Market confidence is improving, and we now expect to finish the year in a slightly better position than anticipated in February. That confidence should also translate into another record year for electric vehicles, which will likely account for more than one in seven new car registrations.”
