UK new car registration shrinks nearly 30 pct in 2020
Source: Xinhua | 2021-01-07
New car registration in Britain plunged by 29.4 percent in 2020 year-on-year to the lowest level since 1992, the British Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said Wednesday in a report.
In 2020, around 1.63 million new cars were registered -- a 680,076-unit yearly decline equivalent to some 20.4 billion pounds (about 27.8 billion U.S. dollars), said the report.
The year "2020 will be seen as a 'lost year' for automotive (industry), with the sector under (COVID-19) pandemic-enforced shutdown for much of the year and uncertainty over future trading conditions taking their toll," said Mike Hawes, chief executive of the SMMT.
However, registrations for battery and plug-in hybrid electric cars recorded the best-ever year in 2020, which together accounted for 10.7 percent of overall market share, up from around one in 30 in 2019, said the SMMT.
Data revealed that the demand for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) grew yearly by 185.9 percent to 108,205 units, while registrations of plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) rose by 91.2 percent to 66,877.
"Encouragingly, there is room for further growth as most of these registrations (68 percent) were for company cars, indicating that private buyers need stronger incentives to make the switch, as well as more investment in charging infrastructure, especially public on-street charging," said the SMMT.
Despite current lockdown restrictions across the country, the auto sector is expected to see a recovery in 2021, according to Hawes.
"With the rollout of vaccines and clarity over our new relationship with the EU (European Union), we must make 2021 a year of recovery," Hawes added.
Hawes said the group will work with the British government to encourage drivers to make the switch and promote investments, in a bid to recharge "the market, industry and economy".
The SMMT report came as the number of new daily confirmed cases of coronavirus in Britain topped 60,000 for the first time on Tuesday since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
To bring economy and life back to normal, countries such as Britain, China, Russia and the United States, have been racing against time to develop coronavirus vaccines.
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