The UK new car market saw its third month of decline last month as the industry continues to level out from a record start to the year.
March witnessed record new registrations ahead of a change to vehicle excise duty rules that saw a large number of cars become eligible for higher tax.
Figures released by car industry body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show that June’s registrations were 4.8 per cent down on last year at 243,454.
However, Mike Hawes, chief executive of the SMMT, noted that this decline was expected as the market continues to stabilise. He said: “As forecast, demand for new cars has started to cool following five consecutive years of solid growth but the numbers are still strong and the first half of the year is the second biggest on record.
“Provided consumer and business confidence holds, we expect demand to remain at a similarly high level over the coming months.”
Alternatively fuelled cars continued to see sales rise with a 29 per cent boom compared with last year, but Hawes believes more needs to be done to encourage the uptake of green cars.
He said: “It’s encouraging to see alternatively fuelled vehicles experiencing rapid growth, but adoption is still at a relatively low level and more long-term incentives are required if this new generation of vehicles is to be a more common sight on British roads.”
Meanwhile, diesel’s decline continued at an alarming rate, with a drop of 14 per cent compared with last June.
