UK November 2023: Fleet sales (+25.4%) pull market up 9.5%

The Ford Puma is the best-selling vehicle in the UK in November.

156,525 new cars hit UK roads in November, a 9.5% year-on-year uptick and back to the pre-pandemic level of November 2019 (156,621). Note 2019 was the weakest November in 7 years. The year-to-date tally is now up a stellar 18.6% to 1,761,962, but still far below the 2,162,143 units of the 11 months of 2019. Private sales drop -5.9% year-on-year this month to 60,506 and 38.7% share vs. 45% a year ago and it’s fleet sales that single-handedly pull the market up at +25.4% to 93,049 and 59.4% share vs. 51.9% in November 2022. Business sales are down -32.7% to 2,970 and 1.9% share vs. 3.1%. Year-to-date, the picture is similar with private sales weak (+1%) at 773,807 and 43.9% share vs. 51.6% over the first 11 months of 2022 and fleet sales strong (+39.1%) at 947,422 and 53.8% share vs. 45.8% a year ago, the two channels having exchanged market shares year-on-year. Business sales edge up 6.2% to 40,733 and 2.3% share vs. 2.6%.

As for propulsion type, diesel sinks -16.8% to 4,663 units and 3% share vs. 3.9% a year ago, petrol gains 7.4% to 61,875 and 39.5% share vs. 40.3% last year, MHEVs are up 21.4% to 29,232 and 18.7% share vs. 16.8%, BEVs actually drop -17.1% on a particularly strong year-ago volume to 24,359 and 15.6% share vs. 20.6%, PHEVs soar 55.8% to 15,871 and 10.1% share vs. 7.1% and HEVs gain 27.8% to 20,525 and 13.1% share vs. 11.2%. Year-to-date, diesel is down -15.7% to 66,610 and 3.8% share vs. 5.3% over the same period in 2022, petrol is up 12.5% to 720,124 and 40.9% share vs. 43.1%, MHEVs are up 22.8% to 336,578 and 19.2% share vs. 18.5%, BEVs are up 27.5% to 286,846 and 16.3% share vs. 15.1%, PHEVs up 38.8% to 129,149 and 7.3% share vs. 6.3% and HEVs up 27.8% to 222,655 and 12.6% share vs. 11.7%.

Source: SMMT

Looking at the brands ranking, Volkswagen (-2.4%) stays on top but BMW (+16.9%) is catching up at 7.7% share, its highest since February 2022 (7.8%). Ford (+2.4%) stays at #3 and Audi (+2.2%) drops two spots on last month to #4, both posting disappointing results. Vauxhall (+39.5%) is catching up on lost ground with 5.9% of the market vs 5.4% over the first 11 months of the year. Toyota (+6%) is muted at #6 while Mercedes (+48%) scores the largest gain in the Top 10. MG (+35%) is also very robust at #10. Below, Peugeot (+144.3%), Renault (+84%) and Cupra (+75.4%) all impress. Notice also Tesla down a searing -72.6% to #26 with just 1.1% share.

Model-wise, the Ford Puma (+78.5%) surges ahead to hold onto the top spot like it does year-to-date (+39.4%). The Vauxhall Corsa (+65%) also manages a mighty gain to climb to 2nd place overall but remains at #3 year-to-date below the Nissan Qashqai (-27%) devastated year-on-year but back up to #3 for the month vs. outside the Top 10 in October. The Mini (+6.5%) is weak year-on-year but at #4 with 2.3% share it does much better than year-to-date (#7 and 1.7%). The Ford Kuga (+42.8%) and Kia Sportage (+39.9%) are very strong below while the Vauxhall Mokka is back inside the Top 10 at #7. The MG HS is up to #8 and the VW Golf signs its first Top 10 finish of the year at #9. The Tesla Model Y implodes at -76.4% and drops to #6 year-to-date.

Previous month: UK October 2023: Ford Puma leads, BMW 1 Series and Peugeot 2008 at record levels

One year ago: UK November 2022: Nissan Qashqai and Tesla Model Y best-sellers, sales up 23.5%

Full November 2023 Top 46 All brands and Top 10 models below.