Tesla and MG were the ONLY car brands to grow in 2020

It was a year of decline in the UK for almost every car manufacturer – with just two exceptions, MG Motor and Tesla. And both are big on electric…

Row of Tesla

The 2020 UK new car market declined to a level last seen in the 1992 recession, and almost every car manufacturer posted year-on-year sales falls.

There were just two exceptions: MG and Tesla.

Tesla doesn’t officially release new car registrations figures, so it is listed as ‘other’ in the official Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders rankings.

But ‘other’ saw sales grow 78 percent in 2020, to over 26,000 cars – and we do know that 22,344 of them were the Tesla Model 3 alone.

It therefore seems likely Tesla has leapt up the order to take a UK market share approaching 1.5 percent – beating the likes of Porsche, Lexus and Mitsubishi.

MG HS

MG, meanwhile, is fast rolling out its own range of pure electric cars, to bolster its existing good-value line-up of hatchbacks and SUVs.

This has helped it post growth of nearly 41 percent in 2020, with sales growing to 18,415 cars – giving it a 1.1 percent share of the UK new car market.

Both companies have more to come in 2021: Tesla with the Model Y electric crossover SUV, MG with new all-electric models including a well-priced EV estate car.  

Every other car company declined in 2020. Some kept a cap on things: Porsche was down 6.4 percent, Lexus and Toyota were down 12.7 percent and even luxury brand Bentley was ‘only’ down 16.1 percent.

Losses for others were much greater. Vauxhall fell 40.2 percent, Hyundai was down nearly 43 percent, Citroen was down nearly 45 percent.

The worst performers were Smart, down 65.7 percent, and Subaru, which fell more than 68 percent.

Last year, Subaru sold just 951 cars, compared to almost 3,000 motors the year before.

It’s a far cry from the heady days of Colin McRae and Impreza Turbos: unlike Tesla and MG, the future seems bleak for this still fondly-regarded Japanese brand…

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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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