New car sales jump, but demand for electric remains down (HonestJohn)

Britain’s new car market enjoyed a bumper month in August, with industry data showing a 23 per cent rise in new car sales. However, despite the positive figures, demand for pure electric vehicles remains down.

Data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) shows that 94,094 new cars were registered in August, but just 659 were pure electric.

This means year-on-year registrations of new electric vehicles remains down on 2017, although plug-in hybrid models fared better with a jump of 167 per cent in registrations, which represents a real world increase of 2079 cars.

Sue Robinson, director of the National Franchised Dealers Association (NFDA), which represents franchised car and commercial vehicle retailers in the UK, links the slow demand to supply problems.

“Despite the monthly increase, sales of pure electric vehicles are still down year-to-date primarily due to technical, supply issues,” said Robinson. Read more