New car sales fall again in October, say manufacturers

[Wolf.17]

Sales of new cars in the UK recovered slightly in October, although they were still down on a year previously.

According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders (SMMT), sales fell to 153,000 units during the month, down about 3% year on year.

It is an improvement on September, when there was a 20.5% decline.

The new figures come as Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is to reopen its Solihull plant in the West Midlands after a two week shutdown.

Grant worries
The SMMT said there had been strong growth in alternative-fuelled vehicles (AFV), with combined plug-in hybrid and battery electric registrations up 30%.

Manufacturers are also worried about the potential risks of Brexit. They fear that an end to frictionless trade could disrupt their "just-in-time" supply chains, hurting production.

JLR, the UK's biggest carmaker, had also blamed weakening global demand and falling diesel sales for its decision to pause production in Solihull from 22 October.

Last week JLR said car sales had fallen sharply, taking it into a loss for the three months to October.

Its revenues were £5.6bn on sales of 129,887 vehicles in the three months to the end of September. As a result JLR's parent company, Tata Motors, reported a net loss £110m for the quarter.