New car registrations better than expected in robust September market

Published on Thursday, 04 October 2012 09:56

Posted by Vicki Mitchem

Important plate change month sees new car registrations grow 8.2% to 359,612 units, exceeding expectations by more than 26,000 cars.The market has increased 4.3% to 1,620,609 units in the first three quarters of 2012, up 67,515 units.

Since this time last year, the new car market has enjoyed quarter-on-quarter growth vs the previous year, culminating in a 7.5% gain in Q3 (the best non-scrappage impacted quarterly growth since 2001). For the year-to-date, the average new car emitted 133.4g/km of CO2, down 3.4% on the 138.7g/km from the same period in 2011.

"The important September plate change market outperformed expectations with new car registrations increasing more than 8% on last year to 359,612 units," said Paul Everitt, SMMT Chief Executive. "Although the economic outlook remains challenging, we are starting to see a tentative return of consumer confidence as motorists explore new products and the latest fuel-efficient technologies."

Source: ©SMMT