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11 Oct 2025

Peter Vosper: New car market up by 13.6% in September

An update on the latest trends in the car market from the chairman of the Vosper Group

Peter Vosper: New car market up by 13.6% in September

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

The new car market delivered its best September market since 2020.

There were also a record number of electrified vehicles registered in the month representing more than 50% of all sales.

Plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) were the fastest growing sector, rising 56.4%, to achieve a 12.2 % market share. Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV’s) grew by 29.1%, on par with the years growth to date. Their 72,779 registrations were the best month on record, accounting for 23.3% of the market, driven by manufacturers discounting an ever increasing choice of models and the addition of the Electric Vehicle Grant – which comprised about 25% of available BEV’s – enjoyed a growth in uptake that outpaced the overall electric market.

These are important numbers as it appears the government may be prepared for a mixture of pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids to meet its objectives. Certainly, the Chinese have found this is necessary to gain the confidence of both rural drivers who take long journeys (even if irregularly), and city dwellers who live in high rise blocks and do not have easy access to charging. The infrastructure still needs more investment and public charging needs to become cheaper to encourage the less well off to embrace electric vehicles. It will be necessary for more cars to meet the government criteria to qualify for the £3,750 grant to really change demand in the short term.

One of the other most significant factors in the rise of the September market was the growth of Chinese brands. MG continued to grow with 4.66% of the market, Chery, which has Omoda and Jacoo in its brands, achieved 3.86% and BYD took 3.60%, and this is with each of these poised to produce a wider range of products to the British market in the near future. Price has been a driving factor with their current product, and European manufacturers will have to compete soon or continue to lose out to a growing presence of Chinese brands and products in the future.

The other big news for motorists is the compensation payouts statement from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) which could result from around 14 million motor finance agreements between April 2007 and November2024. The Supreme Court decided at an earlier hearing to reduce the scope of those entitled to compensation when it agreed with the finance companies in two out of three crucial test cases focussing on commission payments made by banks and other credit providers to car dealers.

Under the proposals the FCA expects average payments of £700 per miss-sold agreement. The FCA wants the new scheme to up and running by early next year with quick payments made after that.

These payments will be made to customers who were unaware of some discretionary payments where a dealer received a commission from a lender, based on the interest rate charged to the customer. Many personal contract purchase agreements (PCPs) would appear to be exempt as on new vehicles rates would be fixed by manufacturers and were often subsidised, and on used vehicles rates and commission earnings were fixed by the lenders.

I hope to provide more details on this next week.

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