No recommendation
No news or research item is a personal recommendation to deal. Hargreaves Lansdown may not share ShareCast's (powered by Digital Look) views.
(Sharecast News) - New car sales across the UK registered their best May performance in seven years last month, according to the latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), with registrations up 7.1% over the previous year.
New car registrations totalled 160,662 in May, up from 150,070 in May 2025.
This was the strongest sales performance for the month of May since 2019, though sales were still 12.6% behind that year.
Year-on-year growth was driven by a 17.2% surge in private sales to 65,781, which was enough to support just a 1.8% increase in fleet sales to 91,765, and offset an 18.8% plunge in business sales to 3,116.
According to the SMMT, private consumers responded positively to "increasingly competitive offers from an unprecedented range of brands", as well as a 6.4% increase in model choice. In particular, there has been a 25.6% jump in battery electric vehicle (BEV) models on the market over the year to date compared with last year.
BEV sales to all customers were up 34.2% at 43,931 in May, accounting for 27.3% of the market, up from 21.8% the year before, while sales of plug-in hybrid EVs jumped 23.9% to 22,167, with their market share rising to 13.8% from 11.9%. HEV sales rose just 1.8% to 20,719, resulting in a fall in market share to 12.9% from 13.6%.
However, despite the growing demand for new technologies, the SSMT said the transition to zero-emission mobility "remains well behind the mandated trajectory". For the first five months of 2026 combined, BEVs accounted for 23.9% of all sales, short of the 33% required for the year.
"While various flexibilities can be drawn upon to help meet the regulation, this widening gap between mandated targets and consumer demand is increasing pressure on manufacturers, which must try to absorb the rising costs of compliance," the SMMT said.
Meanwhile, sales of petrol cars continued to fall, dropping 7.1% year-on-year to 66,223, taking their market share to 41.2% from 47.5%, while diesel sales declined 2.2% to 7,622, with their market share slipping to 4.7% from 5.2%.