By John Simpson 05 July 2012
New car sales to the fleet sector were just behind registrations from the same month last year as private buyers kept up demand for new cars.
The fleet market accounted for 101,675 new models last month, 534 fewer than in June 2011 (102,209). This leaves 2012’s fleet sales 640 units and a weedy 0.1% behind where it was this time last year (537,176).
Another bout of renewed appetite from private buyers resulted in 79,916 new car sales last month, over 7,000 or 9.8% more than in June last year.
The total number of new car registrations ranked at 189,514 units, 3.5% more than last June and considerably more settled than the 7.9% increase from May, which marked the heftiest percentage rise for nearly two years.
Slight uplift
With new car sales at the halfway point for the year, the figures released by the SMMT show a 2.7% improvement on the first half of 2011 with 1,057,680 units in total for the year to date.
Paul Everitt, Chief Executive of the SMMT, said: "Driven by demand from private buyers, June new car registrations grew 3.5% to push 2012 half year volumes through the one million mark.
"Despite domestic and international economic concerns, UK motorists are responding positively to new products and the latest fuel-efficient technology.
“The industry has performed better than expected in the first half of the year and we will now need to work hard to sustain growth."
Diesel engines continue to outsell its petrol counterparts, dominating more than half of 2012’s car sales (51.2% to petrol’s 47.4%).
The data also suggests that alternatively fuelled vehicles (AFVs) are an increasingly attractive option with 2,481 AFVs sold last month, 47.8% more than in June 2011.
It was familiar story with the year’s most popular with the Ford Fiesta leading the way for the year’s sales by more than 12,000 units while Vauxhall’s Corsa slipped back into second after dethroning the Fiesta from the top spot in May.
SMMT’s Paul Everitt comments on registrations for the year so far:
2012’s top-selling cars
June Year-to-date 1 Fiesta Fiesta 59,570 2 Corsa Corsa 47,147 3 Focus Focus 43,853 4 Golf Golf 34,572 5 3 Series Astra 30,483 6 Astra Qashqai 23,435 7 MINI 3 Series 23,035 8 Qashqai Polo 22,349 9 Polo Insignia 17,890 10 Fiat 500 C-Class 17,617
Categories: Fleet news , smmt
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