New car registrations fell to their lowest level in more than 20 years in September, according to the Automobile Industry Association.
The Association of Automobile Manufacturers and traders (SMMT) said the number of new registrations fell 35 per cent compared with the same period last year.
The decline in car production has been blamed on a continuing global shortage of computer chips.
However, SMMT says sales of electric vehicles are growing rapidly.
Although the entire car market has been affected by the outbreak, more than 32000 electric vehicles were registered last month, almost the same as the number registered for the whole of 2019.
September is usually a bumper month for car sales, as changing license plates every six months tends to attract buyers.
However, only 214000 cars were sold in September-the lowest month since the current registration system was introduced in the UK 23 years ago.
Last year, due to falling production, the number of new car registrations fell to the lowest level in nearly 30 years.
The number of new car registrations was about 1.63 million in 2020, compared with 2.3 million in 2019. The 29 per cent drop was the biggest one-year drop since World War II, when factories were handed over to military production.
Mike Hawes, chief executive of SMMT, said the latest data showed that “September was very disappointing, further evidence of the continuing impact of the Covid outbreak on the industry”.
“Despite strong demand for new cars in the summer, it has been hit by stagnant supply for three consecutive months due to reduced supply of semiconductors, particularly from Asia.”
When the shutdown forced production lines to stop production, microchip makers diverted chips normally used for new cars to the consumer electronics market, and supply has not yet been fully restored.
Post time: Dec-03-2021