Scrappage nudges 380k
April 13th, 2010 by Richard Aucock
SCRAPPAGE is continuing to impact the new car market with total registrations hitting 372,401 cars.
This was the figure at the end of March, meaning scrappage still accounted for 12.2 percent of new car registrations.
It is good news for the Government, which has been working to ensure no orders get ‘lost’ in the system and actual scrappage registrations get as close to the 400,000 total as possible.
SMMT chief executive Paul Everitt said: ‘Final scrappage orders had to be placed by the end of March and already almost 380,000 vehicles have been registered, out of the 400,000 available.
‘The scheme has provided a hugely important stimulus to the market and leaves industry in far better health than we saw in pre-scrappage 2009.
‘Consumers will also benefit from the improved fuel efficiency, the latest safety features and cleaner tailpipe emissions available from the new vehicles purchased through the scheme.’
Supporting this latter point was the revelation average new car emissions under the scrappage scheme are 132.9g/km, 27.1 percent better than the car being scrapped. It is also nearly 10 percent below the overall new car market average.
Even so, it is clear scrappage is nearing the end. The March scrappage count was 8 percent down on the trend of the past few months; since May 2009, scrappage has made up 18.7 percent of all new car sales.
The fact that Car Dealer Magazine is really struck by, though, is the small car proportion of scrappage sales. Superminis normally make up 38.1 percent of all new car sales – but under scrappage, are up to 58.5 percent.
Mini cars normally take 3.9 percent of sales. With scrappage, this increased to 13.0 percent…
Tags: new car sales, registrations, scrappage, SMMT