New car sales in the United Kingdom for April collapsed and plummeted by 97%, the lowest level of any month since February 1946. The obvious cause of this historic route: the COVID-19 pandemic that kept both buyers and employees at home.
Only 4,321 cars were registered in the UK compared to the 161,064 new cars registered in April 2019, said the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). The historic low point for car sales in Britain was set in February 1946 when only 4,044 cars were sold.
"If you are told to close all your car showrooms for the entirety of April it's no surprise sales are almost non-existent," said SMMT CEO Mike Hawes to the BBC.
SMMT said 70% of the registrations made in April were fleet sales made by companies and not by individual buyers. These fleet cars were bought before the lockdown from wholesalers, or directly from manufacturers, and not from dealerships.
The unprecedented loss in sales led SMMT to further downgrade its full-year car sales forecast to 1.68 million compared to its estimate of 2.25 million car sales made in January. The revised estimate of 1.68 a million cars sold is the lowest in nearly 30 years.
"Safely restarting this most critical sector and revitalizing what will, inevitably, be subdued demand will be key to unlocking manufacturing and accelerating the UK's economic regeneration" said Hawes.
Surprisingly, the top-selling car in the UK in April was the Tesla Model 3 all-electric five-door liftback sedan, which sold 658 units. In the past, the top-selling car in the UK was marques made by Ford, Volkswagen and Vauxhall.
American online car marketplace Autotrader.com said the British car the market has been paused but not stopped. Ian Plummer, Autotrader commercial director pointed out there will be a chance "for the industry to accelerate the adoption of low emission vehicles (meaning EVs)" when social distancing restrictions are removed.
"However, it'll be essential for manufacturers to push more electric vehicles into their UK networks along with greater financial incentives," such as scrappage schemes, he said.
Plummer said with retailers forced to close the doors to their physical forecourts, it comes as no surprise to anyone to see just how dramatic impact it's had on the new car market.
"Some brands have been able to sell remotely, but uncertainty in the government's guidelines or a lack of the required infrastructure to operate home delivery in a safe way, has limited it to all but a handful of retailers," according to Plummer.
The UK car industry is the country's biggest exporter of goods. Because of the immense economic destruction wrought by COVID-19, the UK car industry stands to lose $9.94 billion in economic output this year. Output has fallen 14% so far this year. Sales have plummeted 43%.
