Fleet sales down in January, says SMMT
Date:
04 February 2016
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Author: Daniel Puddicombe
UK car registrations grew by 2.9% in January, with sales hitting an 11-year high of 169,678 units last month, according to the latest SMMT figures. However, the fleet sector fell slightly, by 1.1% to 89,901 units
Private and business users drove the growth in the market, with sales increasing by 8.2% and 5.0% respectively.
According to the SMMT, alternative-fuel vehicle registrations increased by 32.1% compared with 12 months ago, accounting for a record 3.6% of sales.
Hybrid vehicles saw the biggest rise in demand compared with January 2015 -up 44.1% - while plug-in sales grew by 32.2%, and electric cars enjoyed an uplift of 14.1%.
Ford's Fiesta was the best-selling car of the month, with double the sales of the second-placed Nissan Qashqai.
"January's solid performance puts the new car sector in a good position to start the year," said Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive. "Providing consumer confidence remains strong, we expect a more stable 12 months ahead, broadly similar to 2015 which was, of course, a record year."
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