- With a host of new entrants, some are registering very small numbers
Stellantis isn’t alone in having brands that barely register a market share
Electric car sales in September experienced a significant boost.
- September wiped out BMW’s losses
SEPTEMBER’S 13.7% new car registrations jump may have been a welcome shot in the arm for the industry, but with the total now shared between 53 listed brands, how long can some of the ‘smaller’ marques survive?
Stellantis is the manufacturer with the most sub-brands: it operates 10 brands and must be looking at the viability of some of its badges.
In September, the second biggest month of the year, DS registered just 14 cars. Abarth didn’t do much better with 41 cars. For reference, Stellantis’s supercar brand Maserati registered more than DS and Abarth combined. Although it too didn’t have a great month with 57 registrations: down 16% or 11 cars on September 2024.
Some of Stellantis’s bigger volume brands are also having a hard time this year.
While Peugeot and Vauxhall are having very respectable years (Peugeot is the second fastest climber year-to-date up nearly 20,000 cars; Vauxhall is up more than 3,000 units), household names Citroen and Fiat are looking distinctly off-colour.
Citroen is down more than 9,000 cars YTD with a market share now below 1%; a year ago it was at 1.5%. And Fiat’s share is now at 0.5%, down from 0.8% a year ago.
Stellantis isn’t alone in having brands that barely register a market share
Given the importance of September, it’s worrying that new entrant Skywell registered just four cars in the month and it’s only sold 20 this year. Genesis, which has been around much longer and doesn’t really qualify as a new entrant anymore, registered 92 cars in the first 75-plate month. Although it is up 156 cars YTD it still only accounts for 0.06% of the market.
Similarly, GWM and Xpeng market share is 0.03% each and Ineos accounts for just 0.01% of the market.
With a host of new entrants still to launch in the UK, pressure is only likely to increase.
Cox Automotive on September 2025 car registrations
Philip Nothard (pictured): “September delivered a welcome strong double-digit surge in new car registrations, with plug-in hybrids powering much of the momentum. Yet, with almost a quarter of all registrations reportedly taking place on the final day, the unmistakable signs of a ‘push’ market are back. This highlights continued downward pressure on sales teams, in addition to increasing stress on electric vehicle (EV) residual values. With EVs still holding only 22.1% of market share this year, reaching the 28% ZEV mandate by year-end looks increasingly ambitious, a stretch that could inject further volatility into an already finely balanced market.”
Did the Electric Car Grant help?
Despite initial confusion surrounding the two-tier Electric Car Grant and which cars would actually qualify, retailers have reported that the combination of the grant itself, OEMs introducing their own EV discounts and the wider surrounding positive press plus Government signalling a direction of travel meant that electric car sales in September did experience a significant boost.
A boost that delivered 72,779 new battery electric vehicles – the highest ever monthly volume and, when combined with hybrids, meant electrified vehicles comprised the majority of car registrations.
In total, battery electric cars accounted for 23.3% of the market, ahead of the year-to-date figure of 22.1%. This time last year the market was at 17.8% EV.
Car dealers that Broker News spoke to said that not only were EV registrations up due to discounts and incentives, but deals were helping other sectors too – particularly in retail.
One source claimed it was these incentives that meant last-day-of-the-month registrations were not as high as expected, at around 24% of the month – although this view is at variance with Cox Automotive (see panel).
Land Rover numbers following cyber attack
Despite not being able to electronically register new cars for a significant proportion of September after Jaguar Land Rover was hacked, Land Rover and its dealer network still managed to register nearly 6,500 cars in the new 75-plate month. This was down 28% on September 2024, but nowhere near the bloodbath many had feared.
Source: SMMT
Winners and losers in the September 2025 car market
September wiped out BMW losses. The brand had been having an up and down year until September when it went from being down more than 5,000 units between January and August to being down just 187 cars year-to-date now.
The swing also means BMW is now the second best selling brand in the UK after Volkswagen and ahead of Kia.
While BMW’s September performance was impressive, it was beaten by three Chinese brands:
- MG with a 5,618 boost;
- Jaecoo up 6,489 cars (having only launched in February 2025);
- and BYD, up a massive 10,121 cars.
The rise of the Chinese new entrant brands also made itself known in the top 10 best-sellers chart where the Jaecoo 7 took fourth place for the month, the BYD Seal U sixth and the MG HS seventh.
Kia’s Sportage, which has just been facelifted, took top spot in the September chart and second in the year-to-date running order.
Ford’s Puma is the best-selling car YTD.
At the bottom end of the manufacturer listing for worst performers YTD, sister Volkswagen Group brands Audi and SEAT are down 13,688 and 12,563 cars respectively, although both brands didn’t perform that badly in September.
VW Group’s other brands (VW, Skoda and Cupra), however, are doing well and have more than made up for the 26,000 car drop of SEAT and Audi.
Volkswagen is still the fifth fastest growing brand by volume this year with Skoda and Cupra taking sixth and seventh places.
Top 5 fastest growing brands YTD
Bottom 5 fastest shrinking brands YTD*
1 BYD 30,344
2 Peugeot 19,755
3 Jaecoo 18,170
4 Omoda 13,096
5 Volkswagen 12,254
5 Toyota -7,727
4 Nissan -9,213
3 Citroen -9,231
2 Seat -12,563
1 Audi -13,688
* Jaguar has exited the market and so is not in this chart
What else did we notice in September's car sales?
➡️ Toyota may be one of the five fastest shrinking brands (and dealers aren’t happy about that) but next year is looking more positive with a host of new models including an all-new RAV4 (pictured above).
➡️ BYD took a 3.6% market share in September, but MG remains the single largest Chinese brand with 4.7% for the month.
➡️ MG’s parent SAIC was also the largest manufacturer in the UK market in September, but second was Chery – now a brand in its own right, but also the parent to Omoda and Jaecoo. Together, Chery took 3.9% of the UK market.
Read our analysis of August 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.
