OK, so the overall January market for new cars fell 2.5% against last year to reach 139,345 cars registered. It’s a figure that is well off the 150,000-plus markets that ran from 2014 to 2019, but it is in line with the past two years.
But what really stood out was the performance of three brands that had a really strong start in January’s new car sales.
Step forward Volkswagen and Peugeot, which were the first and second fastest volume climbers, and congratulations to new entrant BYD, which took the third largest increase, up 1,366 units. According to retail publication Auto Sunday, BYD is aiming to reach 60,000 units in 2025.
While Kia wasn’t in the top five for volume increase, it did become the second best-selling brand overall and had its best ever January in the UK with nearly 11,000 cars sold.
Top 5 brands by unit increase YTD
Bottom 5 brands by unit decrease YTD
1 Volkswagen +2,105
2 Peugeot +2,063
3 BYD +1,366
4 Mercedes +866
5 Mazda +803
5 Toyota -1,451
4 Nissan -1,510
3 BMW -1,530
2 Audi -2,399
1 Ford -3,060
Despite the lower fleet numbers in January, the electric car mix was up at 21.3%, a significant rise both on last January’s 14.7% share and on 2024’s year-end of 19.6%.
Fleet falls away in January
Following the heavy OEM fleet incentives and strong terms for electric cars we witnessed during 2024, the new year has started from a much lower level, according to Broker News sources.
The fleet registration fall of 3.7% in January contributed to an overall market decrease of 2.5%.
Retailers that spoke to Broker News said that January started slowly, partly due to where the New Year bank holiday fell and partly due to poor weather. However, the month improved later despite a lack of widespread offers that were a feature of the final quarter of 2024.
Those franchised retailers with fleet divisions added that fleet registrations were down due to a reduced level of push on EVs in 2024 which has yet to restart in 2025.
“The SMMT registration figures show demand for electric vehicles rose significantly last month, and Carwow data tells us a similar story. The EV enquiries generated via the Carwow platform and passed on to dealer partners increased by 29% year-on-year,while PHEV enquiries also saw a similar increase, up 23%. This strengthening interest in BEVs will be welcome news to OEMs as they strive to meet stricter ZEV targets. It represents a continuation of the strong BEV demand we saw over the Christmas period – in terms of vehicle configurations and enquiries for new and used stock, and we expect this trend to continue through the first quarter.”
Philipp Sayler von Amende, Chief Commercial Officer – Get Your Car, at Carwow
One theory downplayed by retailers was Volkswagen’s increase in registrations – the brand was up more than 2,000 units – due to combustion engine orders being pushed into the new year. However, one retailer from a leading group said that VW marketing ceased in December and restarted January. On a similar note, Audi’s poor performance wasn’t helped by a lack of marketing spend, according to Broker News sources.
Stellantis watch: Peugeot overtakes Vauxhall
Stellantis had what can only be described as a mixed start to 2025.
Vauxhall, the group’s largest volume brand in modern times, was relegated to second place behind Peugeot which has been on the rise for the past year or more. Peugeot was up more than 2,000 units for the month. Vauxhall dropped 1,200 units in January, but despite this it moved ahead of long-time rival Ford which was significantly down.
Citroen, which had a flat year for registrations in 2024, saw the year start poorly with a drop of more than 1,000 cars in January and took less than 1% of the market.
While smaller volume player Jeep did well with a 87% increase in volume and nearly doubled its market share to 0.7%.
Taken as a whole the main eight Stellantis brands averaged out at ‘no change’ after adding just 123 cars to its 19,905-car January total.
Blue Oval stuck in the doldrums
At the risk of sounding like a stuck record, Ford’s new car registrations for the month were poor.
The headline figures for January make horrid reading for the Blue Oval; less than 5% market share, dropping below arch-rival Vauxhall in the sales charts and being the fastest faller in volume with a 3,060 unit drop over January 2024.
To put that last figure in context, the overall market was only down 3,531 cars in January.
Source: SMMT
Read our analysis of December 2024 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.
