Land Rover bucks UK car sales slowdown
Land Rover is bucking the national trend as the UK's new car market declined for a third consecutive month, industry figures show.
Just over 243,000 new cars were registered in June, down 4.8 per cent on the same month last year, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
But the West Midlands-built 4x4 brand is accelerating, with sales up more than nine per cent as 6,201 Land Rovers were driven away from British car showrooms last month.
Sister brand Jaguar held steady, with sales up just 1.3 per cent at 2,960. Land Rover's Discovery Sport has been a top seller, while the brand's Range Rover Velar is due to join the line-up later this summer, all powered by diesel and petrol engines from Jaguar Land Rover's £1bn factory on the i54 site in Wolverhampton.
June also proved a surprisingly good month for Volkswagen as its ever-popular Golf led the league table as best-selling car in the UK, toppling Ford's Fiesta from the top slot it has had to itself in recent years.
The SMMT say some 1.4 million cars have been sold so far this year, down 1.3 despite on the same period in 2016. But it says the market is "in line with 2017 forecasts" following a record first three months of the year.
Many buyers brought orders forward to March ahead of new vehicle excise duty (VED) rates coming into force.
SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes 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."
Demand for new diesel cars dropped by 14.7 per cent last month, while petrol rose 2.5 per cent and alternatively fuelled vehicles (AFVs) such as hybrids and electric cars were up 29 per cent.
AFVs took a market share of 4.4 per cent in June, compared with 3.2 per cent during the same month in 2016.
Mr Hawes 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."
