UK June 2020: Toyota and Yaris both sign first ever podium in shy market restart (-34.9%)

First ever UK podium finish for the Toyota Yaris.

Even though car showrooms were allowed to re-open in England on June 1, according to the National Franchised Dealers Association one in five remained shut throughout the entire month. As for Wales (June 22) and Scotland (June 29), the reopening date was too late in the month to have any kind of significant positive impact on the June volume which stands at 145.377 units, down -34.9% year-on-year. This is to be compared with +1.2% in France, -23.3% in Italy and -32.2% in Germany. According to the SMMT, “this is not a recovery and barely a restart” as many of June’s registrations can be attributed to customers finally being able to collect their pre-pandemic orders. In fact, the June figure indicates the hoped for pent-up sales has not yet occurred and there remains some uncertainty regarding the true level of demand.

UK June sales 2004-2020. Source SMMT

Private sales resist a lot better than the rest thanks to orders made before the start of lockdown at -19.2% to 72.827 units and 50.1% share, a full ten percentage points above its June 2019 level of 40.3%. Fleet deliveries remain depressed at -45.2% to 69.498 and 47.8% share vs. 56.8% a year ago while business sales implode at -52.6% to 3.052. Petrol vehicle sales drop faster than the market at -39.9% to 87.896 and 60.5% share vs. 65.6% a year ago while diesel sales implode -59.8% to 23.011 and 15.8% share vs. 25.6%, now easily outsold by alternatively fuelled vehicles up a sumptuous 73.3% year-on-year this month to 34.470 and 23.7% share vs. 8.9% in June 2019. These include 10.230 HEV (+19.3%), 8.903 BEV (+261.8%), 4.926 PHEV (+117%), 6.509 MHEV Petrol (+63.2%) and 3.893 MHEV diesel (+53.3%). Note: MHEV = Mild Hybrid-Electric Vehicles.

MG sales shoot up 87.8% year-on-year in June.

Ford (-38.2%) remains the most popular brand in the country while Volkswagen (-39.3%) rallies back up 3 spots to #2 even though both carmakers lose more ground than the market year-on-year. Toyota (+2.7%) completely bucks the trend and soars 9 spots on May to land on the third step of the podium for the first time in UK history. Our files show that before this month, Toyota only had a one-month incursion into the UK Top 5 in September 2018 so its June performance is extremely impressive indeed, also making it the only Top 15 brand in positive. In the remainder of the Top 10, only Skoda (-28.4%) manages to outpace the market while BMW (-46.8%), Audi (-43%) and Vauxhall (-41.4%) properly implode and Kia (-35.5%), Mercedes (-36%) and Nissan (-36.4%) keep closer to the market drop. Further down, Tesla drops 8 spots on May to #18 but is estimated to be up roughly 1700% year-on-year thanks to the Model 3 while MG (+87.8%), Ssangyong (+30.3%), Lexus (+13.3%), Bentley (+8.5%) and Porsche (+0.2%) are the only other gainers in the Top 40.

The Vauxhall Corsa is the best-selling vehicle in the UK in June.

Model-wise, the Vauxhall Corsa (-19.3%) scores a third win in the past 10 months after last September and November but is stuck at #4 YTD (see our H1 2020 update), while the Ford Fiesta (-41.6%) is back up one spot on May to #2 despite a paltry score. The Toyota Yaris (-15.2%) takes a spectacular leap directly to third place to deliver, like Toyota, its fist ever UK podium finish, eclipsing its previous best of #7 established one year ago in June 2019 and only its 4th ever Top 10 finish after March 2014 (#9), January 2019 (#9) and March 2019 (#10). The Mini (-38.6%), VW Golf (-44.4%) and Nissan Qashqai (-47.1%) all return to a familiar Top 10 posting after being sidestepped during the wild coronavirus months, the Tesla Model 3, leader in April and May, is down to #9 and the VW Tiguan makes its first Top 10 appearance of 2020.

Previous month: UK May 2020: Extended health crisis stifles sales down -89% to lowest May since 1952

One year ago: UK June 2019: Toyota (+17.5%) places Yaris at record #7, Dacia and MG shine in market down -4.9%

Full June 2020 Top 40 brands and Top 10 models below.