Sharp decline in UK's new car registrations slow down but concerns remain

The sharp year-on-year decline in British new car registrations eased last month after a hefty drop in September, but the market still remained depressed by uncertainty about the future of diesel vehicles, an auto trade association said on Monday.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said new car registrations in October were 2.9 per cent lower compared with a year earlier at 153,599 vehicles, a sharp improvement on the annual decline of 20.5 per cent in September.

However, looking at the 10 months to the end of October, sales were 7.2 per cent lower than for the same period of 2017 at 2.064 million, only a modest improvement on the 7.5 per cent annual decline recorded up to the end of September.

"Vehicle excise duty upheaval, regulatory changes and confusion over diesel have all made their mark on the market this year," SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes said.

Model changes and backlogs at test houses conducting new emissions certification continued to cause shortages across some brands, the SMMT added.