New Car sales in the UK drop by 11.5%

In January, new car registrations were down 11.5% compared to January 2010.

The huge fall was inline with the forecast made by the SMMT, and due to the government scrappage scheme being ended.

Market share for cars with low CO2 emissions have increased from 1.4% to 2.7% in the same month last year, said the SMMT.

Cars built in the UK had the same market share as they did a year ago, which stood at 13%

The best selling new car last month was the Ford Focus, with 7,582 new cars being registered.

The SMMT’s CE, Paul Everitt said the ahead was likely to be “a challenging year for the UK motor industry”.

He also asked the government to help boot business by giving tax concessions in the upcoming budget.

"Consumer confidence is low and it is important that government uses the March Budget to help relieve some of the financial pressure on motorists by freezing fuel duty, while providing stability and certainty on motoring taxes," Mr Everitt said.

Last months rise in VAT to 20% has some impact on sales said the SMMT, but the main reason for the fall was last years ending of the scrappage scheme, which gave motorists a discount on new cars for trading in older models.

20% of new cars sold in January 2010, were due to the scrappage scheme, and the SMMT expect that ending the scrappage scheme, will have an impact on the first 6 months of 2011 and on year-on-year sales.

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