- Year-to-date, the new entrant brands have grown by more than 42,000 units
- German premium brands taking the brunt of the fall
- The government’s electric car grant had the initial impact of slowing orders for EVs
- Tesla had a positive August
August is typically the smallest new car registration month of the year, but while the month on its own isn’t massively significant, we’re also now two thirds of the way through 2025 and some trends are becoming very clear.
Overall, August was down 2% and the year-to-date is running up 2%. However, the three premium German brands are having a very difficult time and the new entrant brands are soaring.
Year-to-date, the new entrant brands have grown by more than 42,000 units. To put that in context, the overall market is only up 26,426 cars. And while there are eight new entrants (so far) who have joined the market in the past three years, the trio of BYD, Jaecoo and Omoda account for just over 40,000 of that growth.
On the flip-side, it’s the German premium brands taking the brunt of the fall. Which, given the absence of Jaguar, has to be worrying for those OEMs.
So far this year Mercedes is down 4,809 units, BMW -5,291 and Audi -13,862.
Other traditional premium brands such as Volvo, Land Rover and Lexus are doing okay, but it’s not all sunshine and roses. Volvo is up 476 cars year-to-date (August’s -788 didn’t help), Speaking to dealer groups, the reason is clear; consumer confidence is weak and that means car buyers are looking for lower cost options (or holding off completely). And that’s why the low cost new entrant brands are doing well and the expensive premium brands are struggling.
EV grant impact
Both industry commentators and retailers reported the Government’s Electric Car Grant had the initial impact of slowing orders for EVs as consumers waited for the discounts to be applied.
However, even those brands first to be eligible for the grant or those manufacturers offering their own grant equivalent haven’t seen a noticeable change in performance.
Citroen and a few other Stellantis brands, which were first out of the blocks to have qualifying models but haven’t shown any notable improvement. Vauxhall, Fiat, Citroen were all down. Peugeot is up, but not by much (and it has been strong all year).
Also those that announced their own EV discounts such as MG, Kia, VW, Skoda and a few others were also down in the month.
The only counter to that was Hyundai which was up 450 units or 11%.
Given this grant finally came to fruition in August, many buyers may well be holding off for the new September 75-plate.
Tesla and Elon
As we’ve been saying for months, Tesla isn’t to be judged until at least the September figures and probably more like the year-end – to see what influence Elon’s had on UK sales. The brand has replaced both the Model 3 and the Model Y recently, and any model change at any brand usually leads to irregularities in registration performance. However, at the risk of contradicting our own advice, Tesla did have a positive month in August, up 230 units on the same month last year. September will tell us more.
Winners and losers
The order of the top five fastest growing brands hasn’t changed from last month, with BYD a clear leader as an individual brand. However, if you combine the sister brands of Jaecoo and Omoda, the pair are more than 1,000 units on top.
It’s a similar story at the bottom of the charts. All five brands have seen further drops, but the order is unchanged.
Top 5 fastest growing brands YTD
Bottom 5 fastest shrinking brands YTD*
1 BYD 20,223
2 Peugeot 16,164
3 Jaecoo 11,681
4 Volkswagen 9,888
5 Omoda 9,854
5 Toyota -7,825
4 Citroen -7,825
3 Nissan -8,115
2 Seat -11,931
1 Audi -13,862
* Jaguar would be in this list (-10,566), but we’ve excluded it as, technically, it’s left the market.
What else did we notice in August's car sales?
➡️ Not all new entrants are doing well. GWM is, year-to-date, down 736 units or 77% on last year.
➡️ DS registered seven cars in August. That’s less than a 10th of figure in August 2024. Also, DS has 26 showrooms according to its website.
➡️ Renault, which has one of the most in-demand cars on sale today – the Renault 5, saw sales drop in August. Retailers speaking to Broker News said consumers were holding off for details of the EV grant and the September plate change.
Stats for new cars in August 2025
Source: SMMT
Read our analysis of July 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.
