UK-wide lockdowns caused by the COVID-10 pandemic saw the closure of new car showrooms for a number of weeks during 2020 (as now in early 2021), this action taking its inevitable toll on new car sales and deliveries. It also set a new trend in the way many Brits now choose and buy new cars, configuring and ordering them online, with video walk-arounds of new products becoming commonplace, and contactless home delivery from the back of a truck growing in popularity.
Last year the sale of new cars into the private sector fell by almost 27 per cent (resulting in a £1.9 billion loss of VAT revenue to the Chancellor), with company car fleet sales reducing by over 31 per cent and business registrations down by 43.3 per cent, the uncertainty over Brexit also knocking consumer confidence and new car buying decisions, in addition to the on-going pandemic challenges and future personal mobility question marks.
With low-emission BEV and PHEV sales now accounting for around one in every ten new cars sales, models such as the all-electric Tesla Model 3 and recent Volkswagen ID.3 became unexpected entrants into the UK’s top ten best-selling new cars list during 2020.
Although challenged like never before, the ubiquitous Ford Fiesta remained Britain’s best-selling new car once again last year, as it has done for decades, although its narrow 2,681-unit lead was closer than ever before by the latest Vauxhall Corsa, placed in second place. The third sales podium place went to the Volkswagen Golf, which finished last year 21,720 units down on 2019 at 43,109 examples.
Away from the top three podium positions, the Ford Focus ended 2020 in fourth place, with the Mercedes-Benz A-Class coming in at fifth, followed by the Nissan Qashqai (down from fourth in 2019). The Mini, VW Polo, Ford Puma and Volvo XC40 as the UK’s tenth most popular new car in 2020.