- Ford and Audi sales on the slide in February 2025 car registrations
- Lack of small cars and lacklustre EVs to blame for Ford…
- …While confusing naming has befuddled Audi buyers
- BUT EVs had a great result in February
BAD news from some big names in car sales: Ford, Audi, BMW, Citroen, SEAT and Vauxhall are all more than 2,000 units down in the first two months of the year. But…
…But of that group, Audi is down more than 3,700 units and Ford down nearly 4,500 units, making Ford yet again the fastest falling brand.
Retailer sources who spoke to Broker News have said a combination of Ford’s network cuts, a lack of smaller (less expensive) cars such as the Fiesta, delays to new models and a lacklustre EV line-up are all contributing to the drop in registrations in February 2025.
Ford’s own website currently lists ‘0 results’ under both tabs for ‘Small Cars’ and ‘Coming Soon’ (above).
Despite the continued poor performance, Ford was still the third best-selling brand in February, taking just over 5% of the market (admittedly this is down from nearly 7% a year ago).
Dealers are also reporting that Audi is the worst performing performance brand not only by its registration figures but also by profitability. The recent will-they-won’t-they on agency has led to disruption and uncertainty. And while Audi’s EV line-up is popular in fleet, it has not proved so in the retail sector.
On top of this, Audi’s changing policy on model names and engine/power badging has confused customers, making it harder for retailers to sell the cars.
Top 5 brands by unit increase YTD
Bottom 5 brands by unit decrease YTD
1 Peugeot 2,998
2 Volkswagen 2,410
3 BYD 2,272
4 Jaecoo 1,449
5 Mazda 1,268
5 SEAT -2,194
4 Citroen -2,365
3 BMW -2,717
2 Audi -3,715
1 Ford -4,472
Source: SMMT
EV rush gathers pace ahead of April tax changes
EV registrations hit an impressive 25% of the UK new car market in February, up from less than 20% in both February 2024 and 2024 as a whole.
However, industry experts and retailers have issued a note of caution: the figures are being influenced by a rush to register EVs with a list price above £40,000 ahead of the expensive car supplement tax changes.
Electric cars were previously exempt from VED, both the basic rate and the supplement. Electric cars registered from April onward will be subject to both VED and the expensive car supplement which will add £620 to the running cost of EVs in year two to six of their life. First year VED for EVs starts at £10.
Retailers, manufacturers and industry experts have told Broker News they expect all parts of the vehicle distribution and supply chain to pull forward as many orders of EVs over £40,000 as possible to avoid this cost.
For the same reason, March is expected to be even stronger for EV registrations.
The significant shift to EVs, coupled to the continued success of PHEVs and the demise of diesel, is now starting to impact the level of petrol (and hybrid) sales.
A year ago, cars fuelled only by petrol accounted for approximately 70% of the new car market. February 2025 has seen that drop to 61%.
Overall, the new car market was down 1% in February and is running nearly 2% down year-to-date.
Broker News sources have, however, claimed that retail order take is running well for the March plate-change month.
What else did we see in February’s 2025 registrations?
- No Musk impact on Tesla. Yet. Tesla registrations remained stable in February (up 11% YTD) despite political comments by Elon Musk which caused an online backlash and sales drop in other countries. With the Model 3 the second best seller and the Model Y the third best seller in February, the rush to beat the VED changes may be in play.
- DS in the Doldrums. Stellantis brand DS registered just 22 cars in February.
- Chevrolet back in business. US brand Chevrolet is back in the SMMT figures with 16 cars registered in February.
- GWM not Ora. Chinese brand GWM, recently rebranded from Ora, is well below its 2024 run-rate of around 100 cars a month. February saw just 5 cars registered taking the year-to-date total to 37.
- More brands on sale. The official SMMT registration chart currently lists 50 new car brands, up from 43 five years ago.
Mixed fortunes for Stellantis brands
Peugeot’s team and retailers are clearly doing something right, but perhaps aren’t telling the rest of the Stellantis brands.
Peugeot is the fastest growing brand so far this year with an increase of nearly 3,000 units. Even market leader and strong performer Volkswagen only added 2,410 units in the first two months of 2025.
The only other brand to be up in both January and February has been Jeep (up 637 units YTD).
In terms of volume loss, Vauxhall is running down 2,138 units so far this year, while Citroen is down even more with a loss of 2,365 units.
Peugeot’s increase is keeping the overall Stellantis car market share level. Year-to-date, Stellantis has 17.5% of the market against 17.7% a year ago.
Source: SMMT
Read our analysis of January 2025 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.
