Scrappage scheme gives boost to industry but May registrations are down

The scrappage scheme has brought a welcome boost to new car sales but May's figures, released today show a further fall of 24.8% to 134,858 units.

The scrappage incentive scheme came into effect on 18th May and since the announcement in the Budget over 35,000 orders have been reported to BERR.

Paul Everitt, SMMT Chief Executive said: 'While consumer confidence is improving, the UK motor industry is still facing a difficult economic climate. We have seen an encouraging start to the scrappage incentive scheme, although it will take time to feed into registration figures.
Over the first five months of the year the market is down almost 290,000 units, and down 555,663 units to 1.842 million units on a rolling annual basis. May's figures confirm the 13th consecutive monthly decline in volumes.

The fall is evident across all sales types, although in May private demand was down only 13.8% in comparison. In part this reflects the fall in private demand last year, but is also likely to be an early sign of revival under the scrappage scheme.

Diesel penetration fell for a second successive month, from 44.8% in May 2008 to 44.0% this May. This reflects the shift towards smaller cars, which tend to be petrol engined.

The mini segment was the only segment to record volume growth, up 50.3%. The supermini segment saw market share rise, from 32.2% to 34.6%, and Ford’s Fiesta was again the overall market’s best seller in both the month and year-to-date.