- Audi currently this year’s fastest falling manufacturer
- Confusion around the naming of new Audis hasn’t helped
- PHEV registrations are up almost a third in the first five months of 2025
- Not all new Chinese makes are faring well
Audi, one of fleet’s favourite brands, is currently this year’s fastest falling manufacturers in terms of units sold. The VW Group premium offering was down nearly 9,500 cars over the first five months of this year, compared to the same period in 2024.
Audi was also May’s fastest faller, down 2,582 cars on May last year. The next worst make was sister brand Seat which was down 1,725 units.
The German premium manufacturer is currently ramping up the introduction of new models such as the A6 and A5. However, retailers have told Broker News that confusion around the naming of new Audis hasn’t helped, particularly changing the A4 to A5 without having a new A4 on sale.
Audi’s drop means it has seen market share fall from 6.5% a year ago to 5.2% now at a time when the total market is up 2.8%.
Overall market
May marked a return to growth for new car registrations, up 1.6% (or 2,392 units) for the month. For the year, overall new car registrations are up 23,403 units.
Fleet and business accounted for more than 62% of the new car market in May, up just over one percentage point on the year-to-date figure.
Fuel mix for overall sales continues to move in favour of battery electric and plug-in-hybrid this year. BEV registrations are up more than a third and are now running at 20.9% of the total, compared to 16.1% for the first five months of 2024. However, this is still shy of the Government’s ZEV Mandate target of 28%.
May’s BEV share was 21.8%.
PHEV registrations are up almost a third in the first five months of 2025 and account for more than 10% of the new car market.
Petrol cars, including non-plug-in hybrids, have seen registrations fall 6% and now account for 63.4% of new car sales.
Not all new entrants are equal
New Chinese brands feature prominently in the fastest growing manufacturers with BYD topping the chart and sister brands Omoda and Jaecoo also in the top 5 for unit increases.
BYD’s unit growth of 12,600 cars year-to-date is equal to more than half of the overall market rise.
BYD took more than 2% of the market in May, putting it ahead of brands such as Tesla, Mini and Dacia.
Combined, the Omoda and Jaecoo brands, from parent maker Chery, took just over 2% market share for the month just edging ahead of BYD.
However, not all new Chinese makes are faring so well. GWM, which started out as Ora when it launched at the end of 2022 has not seen the same growth trajectory. May saw only 33 cars registered across the network of 24 dealerships. And year-to-date the brand has registered just 157 cars, down from 611 at this point last year.
GWM is not alone. Skywell (above), which supposedly went on sale at the start of the year has registered just nine cars year-to-date. And Xpeng, which hosted it’s UK launch in February, the same time as Jaecoo, has registered just 51 cars so far – six in May.
Even the Stellantis Chinese joint venture of Leapmotor registered only 98 cars in May. Although that was almost four times more than Abarth.
Stellantis watch
Stellantis is a manufacturer of mixed fortunes. On the surface the group is doing well, with the year to May seeing it pass the 100,000 car marker, up nearly 6,000 units on 2024.
However, three of its brands (Abarth, DS and Leapmotor) have sold fewer than 500 cars this year (four if you include Maserati).
Of the remaining brands, two sway the overall figure more than the others. Peugeot is on a registrations highway; up more than 10,000 units so far this year – the vast majority to fleet and business customers. But balancing this success is Citroen which is down nearly 7,000 units and has a market share of less than 0.8%. At the end of 2019, before the pandemic, Citroen sold 50,000 cars a year and took 2.2% market share.
Tesla
It seems impossible to analyse the new car registration figures without looking at Tesla.
The US brand has been under increased scrutiny ever since CEO Elon Musk started working for US President Donald Trump at the end of 2024.
Even though Musk’s governmental role is now over, the impact brand impact has been lasting.
What’s not yet clear is any sales trend in UK sales. Yes, May saw a 36% drop in registrations, but a large single-month swing is not uncommon for Tesla. Year-to-date Tesla is down 7.8%, a figure that’s wouldn’t be worrying when it’s replacing its best-seller the Model Y.
The real test will be in September, with the plate change. By this time Model Y production should be up and running and buyers will have had a change to order the new car.
Unit registrations winners and losers
Top 5 growing brands YTD
Bottom 5 falling brands YTD
1 BYD +12,600
2 Peugeot +10,503
3 Volkswagen +9,098
4 Jaecoo +5,967
5 Omoda +5,596
5 Nissan -6,167
4 Citroen -6,933
3 Seat -7,513
2 Jaguar -7,726
1 Audi -9,474
Source: SMMT
Read our analysis of April new car registrations
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Tristan Young is an award winning journalist with more than 25 years’ experience reporting on the automotive industry focussing predominantly on fleet and retail. As a self-confessed petrol-head, Tristan has a weakness for car classifieds. When he’s not writing about the automotive industry, he can usually be found outdoors with a small pack of border collies.
