Daily Management Review

UK New Car Registration In April Falls To Lowest Since 1946


05/06/2020




UK New Car Registration In April Falls To Lowest Since 1946
The ferocity of the impact on the economic by the novel coronavirus pandemic in the United Kingdom was evident in the new car sale data of the country for the month of April which saw a year on year drop of 97 per cent and reaching the lowest level of any month since February 1946. Lockdown imposed in the country to prevent the spread of the pandemic resulted in closure of factories and dealerships, resulting in the collapse.
 
Since mid-March, various governments across Europe have imposed lockdown measures to try and contain the pandemic spread which has resulted in the closure of almost all non-essential businesses.
 
According to the data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), sales to businesses accounted for four in five of the 4,321 registrations last month. Its forecast for the full year was downgraded by SMMT to 1.68 million sales which will be the lowest in nearly 30 years if it came true.  
 
"The market's worst performance in living memory is hardly surprising," said SMMT Chief Executive Mike Hawes. "Safely restarting this most critical sector and revitalising what will, inevitably, be subdued demand will be key to unlocking manufacturing and accelerating the UK’s economic regeneration," he added.
 
Just 4,044 new cars were sold in Britain in February 1946 which was just a few months after the end of World War Two. There was still rationing applicable in the country as the UK was trying to rebuild the country after wartime destruction.
 
Out of all the registrations made for new cars last month, 70 per cent were made by companies purchasing new cars for their fleets, the SMMT said. Hawes said that it was possible that the new cars that were registered last month had been ordered vefor eth eoutbreak of the pandemic and the ensuing lockdown.
 
"If you are told to close all your car showrooms for the entirety of April it's no surprise sales are almost non-existent," he said.
 
An SMMT spokesman said that many of the new cars that were registered in the country last month were used for supporting key workers and for those who had a pressing need for them. the spokesman said that it was potentially not possible that those cars had been purchased from dealerships but were instead possibly purchased from wholesalers, or from the manufacturers directly.
 
In the month of April a year ago, the number of new registrations was at 161,064 units.
 
It is expected that there would be 1.68 million new car registrations in 2020, according to the estimates of the industry body, compared to the new registrations of 2.3 million cars in 2019.
 
Hawes said that while some workers in some UK car makers started to get back to work this week, factories achieving full production capacity is still very far off. The supply chain is also starting to re-open.
 
"Manufacturers are trying to figure out how to start operations in a safe environment," he said. "But it will be slow and production will be ramped up very slowly."
 
(Source:www.rte.ie.com & www.bbc.com))