Insight: four lessons from April's car sales

Why fleet sales fared better

Of the 4321 cars sold in April, just 871 were delivered to private buyers. The rest were fleet orders, many of those to care workers and organisations offering vital services such as the NHS. Sales to key workers have been permitted to ensure they can fulfil their roles.

That also explains some of the unusual cars in the top 10: EVs such as the Model 3 and I-Pace are increasingly popular with fleet buyers due to their low running costs, and Jaguar recently agreed a number of deals to supply NHS fleets with its EV. In January, for example, the firm arranged to lease 700 I-Pace models to the Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

The dominance of lease sales also helps explain why the Ford Tourneo Custom and Peugeot Rifter MPVs were the fifth- and sixth-best-selling cars in April.

Car industry pushing for help to limit damage

While the government began easing lockdown restrictions on the 13th of May, the damage to the car industry is likely to be lasting. The SMMT has downgraded its forecast for 2020 registrations to 1.68 million, which would be the lowest since 1992, and 27% down on 2019.

The car industry has been pushing to ensure that dealerships are included in the first wave of ‘non-essential’ businesses allowed to open following the lockdown. The hope is that pent-up demand from buyers nearing the end of PCP deals could lead to an early sales rush.

“A strong new car market supports a healthy economy and, as Britain starts to plan for recovery, we need car retail to be in the vanguard,” said Hawes.

Building demand for new cars – both in the UK and elsewhere – is also vital in getting car production back on track. Following the resumption of production at many continental European plants, Rolls-Royce became the first firm to resume work at its UK factory last week, with Bentley and Aston Martin following suit this week.

But those are all premium brands with relatively small production lines and a backlog of orders. By contrast, larger UK plants remain closed: Nissan has said it won’t resume work at its Sunderland factory until at least June. That reflects both the complexity of introducing social distancing and other health measures in vast car plants, and the collapse in demand for new cars.