On August 5, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) lowered its forecast for new car sales in the UK for 2024, citing weak demand in the private retail market for electric vehicles as a primary concern, Reuters reported. According to the SMMT’s latest forecast, new car sales in the UK are expected to come in at 1.97 million this year, down from a previous forecast of 1.98 million, and it has cut its annual market share forecast for purely electric vehicles to 18.5 percent from 19.8 percent previously.
The latest registration figures from the SMMT show that last month, new car registrations in the UK rose 2.5% year-on-year to 147,517 units, marking the 24th consecutive month of growth and the best July one-month performance since 2020.
Of these, demand from the private retail market fell 11.1% year-on-year to 53,356 units. Private retail demand in the U.K. automotive market has fallen for ten consecutive months through July of this year, and Mike Hawes, CEO of the SMMT, said in a press release that “despite generous discounts offered by manufacturers, the weakness in private retail demand (particularly for electric vehicles) remains the biggest concern.”
Demand for electrified vehicles in the UK outpaced demand in the overall automotive market in July, with a 42% share of registrations. Hybrid registrations were up 31.4% year-on-year to 21,446 vehicles, giving a 14.5% market share; plug-in hybrid registrations were up 12.4% year-on-year to 13,149 vehicles, giving an 8.9% market share; and sales of purely electric vehicles were up 18.8% year-on-year to 27,335 vehicles, giving an 18.5% market share.
New car registrations in the UK rose 5.5% year-on-year to 1,154,280 units in January-July this year. Of these, demand from the private market fell by almost 12% year-on-year; fleet new car registrations were up 21% year-on-year to 691,929 units. In terms of registrations in the first seven months, all-electric vehicles accounted for 16.8% of overall new vehicle registrations.
SMMT said, “For automotive brands, registrations of zero-emission vehicles need to be at least 22% of total annual sales this year, so the pace of the transition needs to accelerate significantly.” However, given current market conditions, such a faster transition looks increasingly unlikely.