UK Car Sales : 2020

Land Rover battling tough times with resilience

Total registrations were down just 11% in December, taking the year to -29%. It ended up the lowest registration total since 2002! Unit sales dropped by 680,000 for the full twelve months compared to the year before, which is a mountain of cars. Only electric and hybrid vehicles were unaffected and in fact were well up (on admittedly small numbers). 

Focusing on whether brands are taking more of the market or yielding ground, the chart below shows how they are doing in that regard, with green being positive, pale blue increase in market share only and yellow negative on both counts. 

VW took the top spot from Ford for the first three months but Ford struck back to take top honours but it is surely only a matter of time before Ford relinquishes its long-held leadership. Ford is shifting its focus toward LCVs. So VW ended up the bridesmaid with BMW, Mercedes and Audi following, I must clarify this is the UK you are looking at. Toyota is doing well as it should with the range of cars it currently has, but Vauxhall is realigning itself with more emphasis on profit.

Nissan is making a market share comeback, which considering its investment in the UK is what one should expect at the very least. Land Rover nearly made the top ten and Jaguar held its market share. MG is growing spectacularly and so is Tesla, although their sales figure is an estimate so who knows.

Data source: SMMT.

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