UK April 2023: Audi teases VW for #1 brand, Ford Puma manages 2nd ever win

Audi ends the month just 379 units below Volkswagen, with the A3 hitting a ranking record.

It’s a 9th consecutive month of year-on-year gains for the UK market in April at +11.6% to 132,990 sales. We are still 17.4% off the 161,064 units of pre-pandemic April 2019. So far this year, volumes are up 16.9% to 627,250 units. Disappointingly, private sales recede -5.5% for the month to 61,342 and 46.1% share vs. 54.5% a year ago whereas fleet sales surge 33.1% to 68,537 and 51.5% share vs. 43.2% in April 2022. Small business sales are up 13.3% to 3,111. Year-to-date, private sales slip into negative at -0.9% to 289,595 and 46.2% share vs. 54.5% over the same period last year, while fleet sales gain 39% to 321,817 and 51.3% share vs. 43.1% during the first four months of 2022. Business sales are up 23.7% to 15,838.

As far as alimentation is going, for the month petrol sales edge up 4.1% to 56,885 units and 42.8% share vs. 45.8% in April 2022, diesel sinks -13.4% to 5,825 and 4.4% share vs. 5.6%, mild hybrids (MHEV) 26,137 gain 6.6% to 26,137 and 19.6% share vs. 20.6% last year, BEV soar 59.1% to 20,522 and 15.4% share vs. 10.8% a year ago, HEV are up 7.7% to 15,026 and 11.3% share vs. 11.7% and PHEV surge 33.3% to 8,595 and 6.5% share vs. 5.4%. Year-to-date, petrol slightly trails the market at +15.1% to 267,444 and 42.6% share vs. 43.3% over the same period in 2022, diesel is off -16.2% to 25,477 and 4.1% share vs. 5.7%, MHEV gain 18% to 116,327 and 18.5% share vs. 18.4% last year, BEV are up 25.6% to 96,755 and 15.4% share vs. 14.4% a year ago, HEV are up 30.3% to 80,887 and 12.9% share vs. 11.6% and PHEV lift 11.5% to 40,360 and 6.4% share vs. 6.7%.

Source: SMMT

In the brands ranking, as it as been the case in most of Europe so far, Volkswagen (+60.7%) bounces back up from weak year-ago volumes to lead the charts with 8.8% share. Only 379 units below is Audi (+15.4%) at 8.6% share which is its highest level since the 9.8% it reached in August 2019. Ford (+2.3%) is weak and relegated to third place above Kia (+4.6%) also trailing the market. Vauxhall (+29.8%) shows unusual strength and climbs 6 spots on March to #5. Only Skoda (+37.7%) beats the market in the remainder of the Top 10, with BMW (-9.2%), Hyundai (+0.8%) and to a lesser extent Toyota (+7.1%) and Peugeot (+10.7%) all underperforming. MG (+85.5%) scores the largest year-on-year uptick in the Top 20 but drops two ranks on las month to #12. Tesla (+1713%!), Polestar (+189.2%), DS (+107.3%), Cupra (+101.1%), Porsche (+74.7%) and Dacia (+36.1%) also shine further down.

Model-wise, the Ford Puma (+7.6%) signs a second overall monthly win (first one was in August 2021) despite falling short of the market growth. Only 2.7% share is enough to propel the nameplate to #1, an indication that the UK is now among the most fragmented in the world. The Puma climbs from #6 to #3 year-to-date as a result. The Vauxhall Corsa (+6.7%) is up five spots on April 2022 to #2 and snaps the YTD pole position in the process whereas it ranked #3 over Q1. The Kia Sportage (+27.7%) brilliantly rounds out the podium, its highest ranking since dominating the charts in January 2022. The Hyundai Tucson (+30.5%) follows at #4 while the Audi A3 (+16.3%) closes the Top 5 at #5, equalling its ranking record also reached in April 2014 and October 2016. The Nissan Qashqai (-33.3%) freefalls at #6 and loses the #1 YTD ranking just as the MG ZS scores a third ever Top 10 finish after November 2021 and January 2023.

Previous month: UK March 2023: Tesla Model Y #1, Nissan (+66.7%) places Qashqai and Juke atop YTD charts, market up 18.2%

One year ago: UK April 2022: Nissan Qashqai signs 2nd ever win in market off -15.8%

Full April 2023 Top 45 All brands and Top 10 models below.