UK Car Sales - Brand / 2016

By Daljit Kalsi Monday, 17 April 2017

Share Tweet Share Share Email

Five years of consecutive increase and record sales. When is this market going to take a break? It's over achieving and surely 2017 will see some sort of retrenchment? No, not because of any political dramas, though surely they will be blamed if sales do fall in any way.

Ford have led since 1977 but it seems that another brand could take that one day. It's just hard to say which one could. Despite Ford's 5% drop in an expanding market, the two main contenders lost 7%. The Ford Fiesta model is so popular, that is keeping the Blue Oval in the lead.

According to a quote from Automotive News that someone in the European car industry referred to the UK car market as Treasure Island. They could send anything over there and it would sell like there was no tomorrow. I get the impression that would mean it has been a profitable market too. If so, maybe the lower pound and Europe's seeming insistence on a trade tariff may make the UK gravy train a thing of the past. Time for the car industry to leverage other markets for more profit. Truly an industry that needs to wake up and start being more sensible. Throwing the toys out of the pram may not work this time.

In the chart below, pale yellow represents a reduction in registrations, pale blue is increase but lost market share. Green is for those exceeding the market growth and finally the salmon colour for those with over 100% increase.

12	13	14	15	16	Brand	2016	%	+/-
1	1	1	1	1	Ford	318,316	11.8%	-5%
2	2	2	2	2	Vauxhall	250,955	9.3%	-7%
3	3	3	3	3	VW	207,028	7.7%	-7%
4	5	5	4	4	BMW	182,593	6.8%	9%
5	4	4	5	5	Audi	177,304	6.6%	6%
8	7	7	7	6	Mercedes	169,828	6.3%	17%
6	6	6	6	7	Nissan	152,525	5.7%	-1%
7	8	8	8	8	Peugeot	98,529	3.7%	-5%
9	9	9	9	9	Toyota	96,746	3.6%	-2%
10	10	10	10	10	Hyundai	92,419	3.4%	5%
11	11	11	11	11	Kia	89,364	3.3%	14%
18	18	14	12	12	Renault	85,102	3.2%	13%
13	12	12	13	13	Škoda	80,372	3.0%	8%
17	15	16	16	14	Land Rover	79,534	3.0%	19%
15	16	17	17	15	MINI	68,984	2.6%	8%
16	13	13	15	16	Fiat	64,547	2.4%	-4%
14	17	15	14	17	Citroën	62,991	2.3%	-9%
12	14	18	18	18	Honda	59,106	2.2%	11%
19	19	19	19	19	Seat	47,456	1.8%	0%
20	21	20	21	20	Volvo	46,696	1.7%	8%
21	22	21	20	21	Mazda	46,609	1.7%	2%
22	20	22	22	22	Suzuki	38,167	1.4%	11%
24	25	25	24	23	Jaguar	34,822	1.3%	45%
-	24	23	23	24	Dacia	26,499	1.0%	1%
29	27	26	25	25	Mitsubishi	18,237	0.7%	-20%
23	23	24	26	26	DS	15,898	0.6%	-18%
30	32	29	29	27	Chrysler	14,090	0.5%	29%
26	28	27	27	28	Lexus	13,915	0.5%	5%
27	29	28	28	29	Porsche	13,097	0.5%	8%
31	31	31	30	30	smart	12,020	0.4%	42%
28	30	30	31	31	Alfa Romeo	4,881	0.2%	-4%
35	37	35	33	32	Ssangyong	4,444	0.2%	33%
36	38	34	34	33	MG	4,192	0.2%	33%
32	33	32	32	34	Subaru	3,612	0.1%	5%
38	39	39	38	35	Infiniti	2,891	0.1%	142%
-	-	41	36	36	Tesla	2,650	0.1%	85%
33	34	36	37	37	Bentley	1,948	0.1%	41%
41	40	37	35	38	Maserati	1,435	0.1%	0%
34	35	38	39	39	Aston Martin	906		-5%
37	36	40	40	40	Ferrari	743		-5%
40	41	42	41	41	Rolls Royce	375		-1%
44	42	43	42	42	Lotus	339		-10%
					Others	621
					Total	2,692,786		2%

Data source: SMMT
Text source: RayCee.