UK New Car Sales Drop More than 35% in November

Sales of new cars in the UK plummeted in November to 100,333 units, a decrease of 36.8 per cent on last year’s figures. These dismal results, released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), represent the greatest monthly drop since June 1980. During the year to November, car sales totalled 2,023,104 units, down 10.7 per cent on the first 11 months of 2007.

According to the SMMT, the government’s decision to reduce VAT to 15 per cent as of December 1 may have prompted a pause in new car purchasing. “Consumers may have delayed their purchases to take advantage of the recent VAT reductions,” commented SMMT CEO Paul Everitt. The SMMT anticipates full year sales of 2.1 million vehicles; last year 2.4 million new cars were sold in the UK.

The UK decline in new car sales during November was not Europe’s largest – sales in Spain plunged 49.6 per cent, the largest monthly fall in over 15 years and the seventh consecutive month of declining sales. Swedish sales of new cars fell 36 per cent to 17,616 vehicles in November, the largest monthly decline since 1993, and new car registrations in Germany declined 17.6 per cent in November to 233,000 units. The ACEA does not release its Europe-wide results until December 16, however for the first ten months of the year European car sales have been 0.4 per cent down on last year.