- Two-thirds of registrations are with fleet and business sector
- But market still reached a 20 year month high at 84,000+ registrations
- EVs take 17.4% market share
FLEET and business registrations accounted for two thirds of the new car market in February despite heavy manufacturer discounting in the retail space.
While February is typically a weak month for private new car registrations as buyers hold off for the new registration plate in March, the overall figures hit a 20-year record high with more than 84,000 cars registered.
Coupled with the high mix of battery electric cars – which accounted for 17.7% of the total – the figures show both that a push market has returned and how serious car makers are at avoiding any Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate fines.
The ZEV fines sit at £15,000 for each car under the 22% target for 2024. However, that 22% can be adjusted downward with lower CO2 vehicles such as PHEVs.
While fleet sales were up more than 25% in February, private new car sales were actually down 2.6% for the month.
However, car dealers Broker News spoke to said it would have been far worse without the manufacturer incentives and finance offers we have seen both on OEM promotions and leasing broker marketing.
Plug-in hybrids also performed well. In February sales were up 29.1% and for the year-to-date they’re up 30.4% against 2023.
OEM analysis
Volkswagen took the overall lead in February with a 9.1% market share with its usual rival Ford knocked into third place by BMW which secured 7.0% of the market. Ford took 6.9%.
Following a rare month of decline in January, MG returned to growth in February recording the highest volume gain of any brand. BMW, which had been suffering from supply issues in early 2023, has now recovered and has not only registered 2,340 more cars in February, but is also the largest volume climber for the first two months of the year with a 5,323 unit hike.
Just over a year into agency and Mercedes posted a 1,044 car hike in new car registrations for the month.
5 Fastest growing brands in February
MG +2,479
BMW +2,340
Mercedes +1,044
Nissan +920
Tesla +909
At the bottom end of the registrations chart, Ford had a particularly poor month for cars, down more than 1,000 units on February 2023. However, one of the bigger surprises was all-electric brand Polestar which saw a drop of 74% for the month and is currently running down 1,407 cars after the first two months of 2024.
5 Fastest falling brands in February
Ford -1,007
Vauxhall -729
Polestar -728
Toyota -693
Hyundai -599
February 2024 best sellers
Source SMMT data.
Read our new car market analysis of January 2024 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.
