2020 new car sales plunge to 28-year low

New car registrations fell 29 percent in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, but 10 percent of them were either electric or plug-in hybrid.

Vauxhall Corsa-e

New car registrations plunged 29 percent in 2020 to 1.63 million units, a level not seen since the 1992 recession.

In terms of year-on-year decline, the pandemic-induced plunge of around 680,000 cars sold is a degree of severity last seen back in 1943, where almost no cars were sold due to WW2.

Trade body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders says the first lockdown accounts for the bulk of lost sales. At least half a million fewer cars were sold in March, April and May 2020.

“The market simply never recovered,” said SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes.

Such a decline in new car sales will have had a significant impact on the UK economy, with the SMMT estimating the exchequer lost £1.9 billion in receipts from new cars.

The cost to the automotive industry was around £20 billion.

SMMT boffins previously predicted 2021 new car sales would return to around two million units. They are now revising these estimates downwards, and plan to release a new figure later in January.

The usual ‘run rate’ for new car registrations in the UK is around 2.3 million units, showing the scale of the decline caused by the Covid pandemic.

Electric up, diesel down

The decline of diesel continued unabated. The last time so few diesel cars were sold was back in 2000.

Only 20 percent of new cars sold in 2020 were diesel-powered.

In contrast, sales of pure electric cars accelerated rapidly. They took a 6.6 percent market share (from less than 2 percent a year ago), with sales reaching over 108,000 units – a 186 percent year-on-year increase.

Add in plug-in hybrid vehicles, and more than one in 10 cars sold in 2020 was a plug-in electric vehicle capable of travelling some distance in zero-emissions mode.

This was a new record for the UK.

However, the SMMT warned there is still a long way to go before one in 10 sales grows to the ’10 in 10′ sales required by the government’s 2030 deadline.

Tesla surprise in December

Tesla ended the year with yet another surprise – the Model 3 was the best-selling car of all in 2020, well clear of the Volkswagen Golf and Ford Fiesta.

This repeats the feat of April 2020 where Tesla was also top in the UK.

What’s more, there was another all-electric car in fourth place, with the Volkswagen ID.3 just nipping ahead of the Nissan Qashqai.

With battery electric vehicles taking a 16.5 percent share of the December market, this sets the scene nicely for 2021, where the ascendancy of electric cars is expected to continue.

Pure electric cars actually outsold diesel in December: regular and mild-hybrid diesels took just a 16.2 percent market share.

Overall, December new car registrations were down 10.9 percent, outperforming the rest of the year, although ultimately hit by a new round of Covid Tier restrictions.

Best-selling cars 2020

Overall, the Ford Fiesta, once again, was the best-selling car in Britain in 2020 – but the rejuvenated Vauxhall Corsa ran it surprisingly close.

The AUTOBEST Best Buy Car of Europe 2020 was less than 2,500 units behind the Fiesta, and easily beat the Volkswagen Golf, leaving the VW in third place.

The ageing Nissan Qashqai slipped to sixth, while the brand new Ford Puma made an immediate impact by taking ninth in the top 10 list.

The premium Mercedes-Benz A-Class sat well clear of the Qashqai in fifth place, while the Volvo XC40 family-focused SUV impressively made it into the top 10, ahead of the BMW 1 Series.

2020’s top 10 new cars

1: Ford Fiesta

2: Vauxhall Corsa

3: Volkswagen Golf

4: Ford Focus

5: Mercedes-Benz A-Class

6: Nissan Qashqai

7: Mini Hatch

8: Volkswagen Polo

9: Ford Puma

10: Volvo XC40

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Richard Aucock
Richard Aucockhttps://www.richardaucock.co.uk/
Richard is director at Motoring Research. He has been with us since 2001, and has been a motoring journalist even longer. He won the IMCO Motoring Writer of the Future Award in 1996 and the acclaimed Sir William Lyons Award in 1998. Both awards are run by the Guild of Motoring Writers and Richard is currently vice chair of the world's largest organisation for automotive media professionals. Richard is also a juror and Steering Committee director for World Car Awards and the UK juror for the AUTOBEST awards.

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