The latest monthly Car Market Overview from cap hpi has revealed a strong uptick in new car sales in July, while the used car market continues to struggle as prices remain high.
It reported that 143,921 new cars were registered in the month, an increase of 28.3% over last year. This makes a full 12 months of growth for the market.
However, registrations for the month remained down on both 2019 and 2020, by 8.4% and 17.7% respectively.
Year-to-date, 1,093,641 cars had been registered to the end of July, a 19.6% increase on last year but still 23.3% behind 2019.
Meanwhile, EV sales increased by 87.9% in July and are now 38% up for the year, while diesel car registrations continued to drop and now make up just 7.9% of all registrations in 2023. Hybrid sales increased by 18.9% in July, with plug-ins up 79.1%
In terms of the used car market, the report revealed August has been tougher for traders than June and July, with values still upwards of 25% higher than in 2021, but the market remains optimistic for September with ‘necessity purchases’ ensuring continued demand.
