UK New Car Sales: A Year in Review
In 2024, the UK saw a slight decrease in the number of new cars bought by private buyers compared to the previous year. Around 746,000 cars were sold to private buyers, which was slightly lower than in 2020 when the country was facing the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. This marked a decrease of 8.7% compared to 2023.
However, despite the decline in private sales, overall car sales in the UK rose by 2.6% to 1.95 million. The majority of these sales, 1.16 million, were fleet sales, accounting for six in 10 new cars sold.
Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) boss Mike Hawes expressed concern over the imbalance between private and fleet sales, noting that the split used to be more evenly distributed. He attributed the drop in private sales to confusion among buyers regarding which type of vehicle to purchase, citing mixed messaging from the government as a contributing factor.
The SMMT highlighted that many car manufacturers struggled to meet the government’s zero-emissions vehicle (ZEV) mandate target of 22%, with only one in 10 new cars sold to private buyers being battery-powered. Despite falling short of the target, electric vehicle (EV) sales saw a record market share of 19.6%, with 381,959 EVs sold in 2024, a 21.4% increase from the previous year.
EVs emerged as the second most popular car type, following petrol cars with 1.02 million sales and ‘self-charging’ hybrids with 261,396 sales. Petrol car sales experienced a decline of around 40,000 units compared to 2023, while diesel car sales remained low with fewer than 125,000 cars sold.
While acknowledging the positive growth in EV sales, Hawes emphasized the need for government incentives to further boost the adoption of electric vehicles. He called for the reintroduction of buying incentives for EV buyers, such as lowered VAT on car purchases and VAT parity between public and home charging.
Additionally, Hawes advocated for transferring fleet incentives, currently in the form of benefit-in-kind tax breaks, to private buyers to incentivize more consumers to switch to electric vehicles.
Kia UK boss Paul Philpott echoed the sentiment, emphasizing the importance of providing incentives to consumers to encourage the transition to EVs. He noted that fleet users responded positively to incentives for electric vehicles, highlighting the need for similar incentives for private buyers.
