Car sales statistics 2024 – UK & worldwide

Key Statistics

• The UK's new-vehicle market is the seventh-largest in the world. In 2022, the UK registered 1,896,202 new cars and vans.
• China registered 25,239,00 new vehicles in 2020, which makes it the largest market in terms of global sales. The USA is the second-largest new car market, followed by Japan, Germany and India.
• The Covid-19 pandemic saw the USA experience one of the largest declines in new vehicle sales on record in 2020, with a year-on-year fall of 2.5 million vehicles. 
• Toyota sells the most cars worldwide. In 2020, Toyota sold 9.3 million new vehicles. 
• The Nissan Qashqai is the UK's favourite new car, with 42,704 sales in 2022. Previously, the Vauxhall Corsa was the most popular car, replacing the Ford Fiesta which had led the annual sales chart for more than a decade.
• Volkswagen is Britain’s top-selling vehicle brand, with 131,850 new car sales in 2022 – 5024 more than Ford, previously the best-selling car brand.
• Ford is the most popular brand in the UK for used cars, with an 11.92% share of used car sales in 2021, closely followed by Vauxhall (10%) and Volkswagen (8.80%). 
• Grey is the UK's most popular car colour, followed by black and white.
• More than one in 10 new cars were electric in the UK in 2022.
• Only 5.1% of new passenger cars were diesel in the UK in 2022.

2024 Car Sales - Global Overview So Far 

New and used car sales in 2024 so far

• 851,690 new vehicles have been registered in Europe as of January 2024 — 12.1% higher than the previous month which saw 760,016 new car registrations.
• 10.9% of the 851,690 new vehicles registered so far in 2024 are Electric vehicles.
• As of January 2024, the demand for petrol-powered cars increased in key markets such as Italy (26.7%) and Germany (16.9%).
• Demand for Petrol-powered vehicles declined across Europe, from 37.9% in 2023 to 35.20% so far in 2024. 
• So far in 2024, sales of diesel-powered vehicles in the EU dropped from 15.8% to 13.4%.
• At 3,034,167 vehicles sold in 2023, Japan was the third-highest passenger car market in the world.

Latest Car Sales – Global Overview

Used Car Sales in 2023

• So far in 2023 used car sales grew by 4.1% in Q1 compared to Q1 2022, with Q2 seeing another 4.1% growth compared to the same time last year. 
• Q3 saw a 5.5% growth on the same quarter in 2022. 
• In the UK, used car transactions grew 5.1% in 2023 — a total of 7,242,692 vehicles were re-registered. 
• Out of the 7,242,692 vehicles re-registered in the UK in 2023, only 1.6% (118,973 cars) were battery electric vehicles.
• In 2023, the top 3 used-car colours in the UK were black (1,549,954), grey (1,234,314), and blue (1,181,741).

New Car Sales in 2023

• The German market had the highest growth in new car registrations at 19.1%. In contrast, Italy's new car registrations grew by 10.6%, France’s +9.2%, and Spain’s +7.3%.
• Total number of vehicles sold in the United States reached 15,278,087 units in 2023.
• China was the #1 car production country in the world, hitting a total of 30,126,000 vehicles in 2023.
• Demand for electric cars for sale has exploded, with a 99.9% increase in sales and now accounting for 1.8% of the market. 
•  China is the largest global market for passenger cars, buying around 25 million new cars every year. 
• The USA has the second-highest figure for new cars sold, followed by Japan, Germany and India. 
• China’s EV sales expanded by 38% to 9.49 million units in 2023, accounting for 31% of its market share.
• BEV sales grew 50% in the U.S. and Canada, 27% in Europe and 15% in China in 2023.
• Out of the 13.6 million EVs sold around the world in 2023, 9.5 million units were fully electric or battery electric vehicles (BEVs) with PHEVs accounting for the rest.

The number of new passenger cars being bought and sold in the UK slumped to record lows in 2022. However, 2023 has seen the UK new car market bounce back strongly.

There were 1.61 million new cars registered for the whole of 2022 – around 700,000 registrations below pre-Covid levels. This means sales were down 2.0% on pandemic-affected 2021 levels.

New passenger car sales in 2021 were already down by 28.7% on pre-pandemic levels and failed to bounce back in 2022 due to the ongoing impact of the global semiconductor shortage and the war in Ukraine affecting supply chains.

Around two million registrations were lost since Covid-19, effectively representing a loss of a year’s registrations.

However, the good news is that the sector has seen improved growth in 2023 and is bucking the wider economic trends, with electric cars leading the way. Indeed, November 2023 saw a 9.5% uplift in new car registrations compared to the same month last year, with 156,525 new cars sold compared to 142,889 cars sold in November 2022.  

Looking at 2023 so far, and new cars sales are up 18.6% on last year, with 1,761,962 cars sold so far in 2023 compared to 1,485,601 at the same point in 2022. 

Used car sales figures 2023

The UK's used car market suffered during the pandemic. In 2020, the used car market fell by 15% on the year before with 6.7 million cars sold. In 2021 it fared better, growing by 11.5% compared to 2020, with 7.5 million cars sold. However, 2021 performance was still 5.5% below the pre-pandemic five-year average, while 2022 fell by 8.5% with 6,890,777 units changing hands as supply was still restricted. 

In 2023 used car sales grew by 4.1% in Q1 compared to Q1 2022, with Q2 seeing another 4.1% growth compared to the same time last year. Q3 saw a 5.5% growth on the the same quarter in 2022. Demand for electric cars for sale has exploded, with a 99.9% increase in sales and now accounting for 1.8% of the market. 

Globally, the UK remains the seventh-largest market for new vehicles but this could change in 2023 with passenger car ownership in Brazil expected to grow and potentially push the UK into eighth place. 

China is the largest global market for passenger cars, buying around 25 million new cars every year. The USA has the second-highest figure for new cars sold, followed by Japan, Germany and India. 

Car sales statistics UK

• The Ford Puma was the UK's most popular car in 2023, with 49,591 registrations. Second was the Nissan Qashqai with 43,321 registrations followed by the Vauxhall Corsa with 40,816 units sold. 
• The Tesla Model Y is the best-selling EV in the UK having notched up 30,032 sales in 2023. Second was the MG4 with 18,658 units sold while the Audi Q4 E-TRON came third with 15,449 registrations.
•  In 2014, diesel accounted for 50% of all new passenger car sales in the UK. However, by 2022, only 5% of new passenger cars were diesel. 
• In contrast, petrol has retained much of its market share of the passenger car market. In 2014, 47.8% of all new cars used petrol. By the end of 2022 this figure was at 42.3%, despite the introduction of hybrid and electric cars.

Electric and Hybrid Cars Sales Statistics

• In 2014, just 2.2% of all new passenger cars were electric. This figure has grown to 16.6% in 2022 and sales of new electric cars will increase as the UK approaches the extended 2035 ban on new petrol and diesel car sales. 
• In 2023, 16.5% of new passenger cars sold in the UK were fully electric cars (BEVs) — PHEVs and HEVs were 7.4% and 12.6% respectively.
• Plug-in hybrid and self-charging hybrid cars had a respective 2022 market share of 6.3% and 11.6% in the UK. 
• Mild hybrid electric petrol cars accounted for 13.6% market share in 2022 while mild hybrid diesel cars made up 4.5% of the market. As a result, UK average new car CO2 fell 6.9% to 111.4g/km - the lowest in history.

The best-selling cars in the UK 2023

The Ford Puma is the best selling car in the UK so far in 2023 (up to the end of November), proving that while SUVs may seem all encompassing, small hatchbacks are still in demand.

1. Ford Puma (46,434)
2. Nissan Qashqai (39,068)
3. Vauxhall Corsa (37,826)
4. Kia Sportage (34,620)
5. Hyundai Tucson (32,301)
6. Tesla Model Y (31,083)
7. MINI (29,777)
8. Nissan Juke (29,272)
9. Vauxhall Mokka (28,390)
10. Audi A3 (28,178)

(Source: SMMT) 

The best-selling cars in the UK 2022

The Nissan Qashqai was the UK's best-selling car in 2022, with 42,704 sales. That's 6794 more than the next best-selling car, the Vauxhall Corsa, which topped the charts in 2021. 

1. Nissan Qashqai (42,704)
2. Vauxhall Corsa (35,910)
3. Tesla Model Y (35,551)
4. Ford Puma (35,008)
5. MINI Hatch (32,387)
6. Kia Sportage (29,655)
7. Hyundai Tucson (27,839)
8. Volkswagen Golf (26,558)
9. Ford Kuga (26,549)
10. Ford Fiesta (25,070)

(Source: SMMT) 

The best-selling cars in the UK 2021

The Ford Fiesta normally tops the list of the best-selling cars in the UK but in 2021 it was the turn of the Vauxhall Corsa, which sold more than 40,000 units in a market hit by the global semi-conductor shortage and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. 

1. Vauxhall Corsa (40,914)
2. Tesla Model 3 (34,783)
3. MINI Hatch (31,792)
4. Mercedes-Benz A-Class (30,710)
5. Volkswagen Polo (30,634)
6. Volkswagen Golf (30,240)
7. Nissan Qashqai (29,922)
8. Ford Puma (28,697)
9. Kia Sportage (27,611)
10. Toyota Yaris (27,415) 

US Car Sale Statistics

• The USA experienced one of the biggest declines in new vehicle sales in 2020, with a year-on-year fall of 2.5 million vehicles.

What percentage of US car sales are electric?

2023 was the first time EV sales surpassed 1 million units for a single year in the U.S. New car shoppers bought 1.2 million electric cars which puts the EV share of U.S. new car sales in 2023 at 7.6% — an increase of 5.9% from 2022.

China Car Sale Statistics

• China is the largest new car market in the world, with 25.5 million annual vehicle sales. 
• In 2023, Electric and hybrid-electric vehicles accounted for 36% of new car sales in China.
• Asia was BMW’s biggest market, with 1,070,142 vehicles sold in 2023 — China alone accounted for 824,932 sales.
• Tesla sold 603,304 EVs in China in 2023. The automaker faced stiff opposition from China’s BYD which sold 1,262,065 BEVs.

Germany Car Sales Statistics

• 2,844,609 new cars were registered in Germany in 2023 — 7.3% higher than 2022’s sales of 2,651,357 units.
• 34.4% of new cars registered in Germany were petrol vehicles.
• Sales of fully electric cars in Germany grew from 17.7% (2022) to 18.4% (2023).
• From 17.8% in 2022, sales of diesel-powered vehicles shrunk to 17.1%  in 2023.

Australia Car Sales Statistics

New Car Sales Statistics in Australia

• 1,216,780 vehicles were delivered in 2023, setting a new all-time high — 2017 held the previous highest sales record of 1,189,116 vehicles.
• Toyota was the top-selling car brand in 2023 with 17.7% of the market. They sold 215,240 vehicles.
• In 2023, the number of fully electric cars (EV) registered was 87,217 representing 7.2% of all car sales.
• 588,622 new cars in Australia were petrol-powered, which represents 48.4% of total car sales
• 2,074,535 used cars were sold in Australia in 2023 — for every new car sold, 1.7 used cars were sold.

Canada Car Sales Statistics

• 253,322 new passenger cars were registered in Canada in 2023 — in 2022, that number was 272,408 vehicles.
• 1,485,948 light trucks were sold in Canada in 2023, 15.5% higher than the previous year’s 1,285,829 vehicles sold.

New Zealand Car Sales Statistics

• New Zealand registered 110,230 new passenger vehicles in 2023.
• Toyota led vehicle sales in New Zealand with 21,876 units sold in 2023 — Mitsubishi came second with 10,269 sales.

Ireland Car Sales Statistics

• 121,850 new cars were registered in Ireland in 2023 — 15.6% higher than 2022 (105,398) and only 4% higher than 2019 (117,109).
• In 2023, sales of new electric cars grew from 15,678 vehicles in 2022 to 22,789 vehicles in 2023.

Who is the leading car manufacturer in the world? 

Toyota is the leading passenger car manufacturer when it comes to total sales. In 2022, Toyota sold more than 9.5 million vehicles, followed by Volkswagen (8.2 million) and Hyundai/Kia (6.8 million).

Toyota has an accomplished range of 4x4 and hybrid vehicles. The Hilux pick-up is a global leader when it comes to 4x4 vehicles, while the Corolla is one of the best selling hybrid cars worldwide. 

Volkswagen Group includes Skoda, Audi, SEAT and Volkswagen. VW's growth has traditionally been driven by the Golf hatchback. However, in recent years, the Tiguan and Polo have surpassed the Golf in global sales. Volkswagen’s new electric I.D range is expected to surpass these cars in the years to come. 

Sources

SMMT, The Department for Transport, BloombergNEF, national statistical agencies, CarExpert, JATO, Forbes, GM Authority, Nikkei Asia, US Department of Energy, Car And Driver, Dongchedi, JADA, Best-Selling-Cars, IndiaToday, Kelley Blue Book, EV Volumes, CNBC, GoCompare, Porch Group Media, Beepi, Miami Herald, SwansWay Garages, ING, ACEA, Factory Warranty List, GoodCarBadCar, WhatCar, China Auto Dealers Association, AAA-Data, KBA, Facon Auto, Scotia Bank, Stat Canada, SIMI, Trading Economics, LTA, BMW Group, Tesla, CAAM, Porch Group Media, Beepi