But he added sales will likely ease off the gas soon as growth had been strong for 43 consecutive months.
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Continuing the trend running throughout 2015, United Kingdom commercial vehicle (CV) registrations once again posted a healthy rise in September, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). “September marked the 43rd month of year-on-year gains, but analysts warned it the rate of growth was unlikely to be sustained”. It is the first time that the two million cars mark has been passed in September since 2004.
The Volkswagen emissions cheating scandal has not deterred United Kingdom drivers from buying diesel cars, industry figures have signalled.
In total, 237,896 petrol cars were sold in September compared to 212,505 diesel.
At the same point last year, diesel cars were outselling their petrol counterparts – and have outsold petrol each year since 2011.
The SMMT’s chief executive Mike Hawes told Sky News it was “too early”, citing pre-orders for VW vehicles and other models that were made weeks before the news broke.
The SMMT’s statistics did show that the VW Golf fell out of the top three best-selling cars in September and although VW, as a brand, sold more cars in September than in the same period previous year, its share of the market fell to 8.5%.
“While the United Kingdom economy may now be going through a softer patch, this is certainly not true of vehicle sales”, said economist Howard Archer from analysts IHS. “Customer demand for diesel remained strong, accounting for one in two cars registered”.
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Year to date, CV sales were up 19.2% to 321,302; 37,141 trucks (+35.6%) and 284,161 vans (+17.4%). October’s figures could be far more telling.
