Peter Vosper on Torbay Motoring

The new car market came in with an increase of over 8% in January as a result of a 30% jump in fleet sales, while private sales fell back by over 15%.
This is a misleading picture as some growth in the fleet market is because manufacturers are required that 22% of their total sales in 2024 must be electric.
To get this off to a good start a number of electric vehicle sales which would have gone into 2023 were held over and have inflated January’s figures.
The market is still affected by the economic situation and buyers are waiting for interest rates or prices to fall before committing to a new car.
To add to this, in spite of used car prices stabilising in the month, January has seen used car sales and promotions across the country as dealers prepare for a busy March for new cars with the plate change to 24.
The success of these sales has also meant the substitution of used car sales for what would have been new car sales.
The fleet market continues to catch up and with electric vehicles attracting minimal benefit in kind taxation, they are popular with fleet and business users. Once again to meet the electric vehicle requirement there are attractive deals for volume purchases.
Motability continues to grow and the Chinese see this as a quick way to get their product on the roads and create awareness for their brand. With new entrants such as BYD and Ora and Chery with their Omoda brand close behind, more choice is available and at very competitive prices.
MG, whose cars are made in China, are already making an impression with their products and made the top ten best selling cars in January with their HS range.
The best-selling car was the Kia Sportage, with the Ford Puma in second, and the Nissan Qashqai in third place, followed by the MG.
Now the market prepares for the largest month of the year, March, when the industry hopes a combination of good news in the budget and the continued fall in inflation will at least offer the prospect of interest rate falls later in the year.
The SMMT continues to press the government to reduce the VAT on electric vehicles to 10% to promote the sale of these products and help the manufacturers to achieve the 22% and at the same time move the government closer to achieving their objectives.
So far there has been no response to these appeals but at some stage the government will need to do more to encourage the move to electric by bringing the costs closer to the equivalent combustion engine product.
With some manufacturers already committed to a full range of electric products and the competition from Chinese entrants there must surely be no time for delay.