6:53 am, January 5, 2023
The British-built Nissan Qashqai was the UK’s best-selling car last year as annual figures show the market plunged to a 30-year low.
The Japanese SUV snatched the top spot selling 42,704 units – the first British built car to be the best seller since 1998.
The car was designed in Paddington, engineered in Cranfield and is built in Sunderland.
The Qashqai was ahead of the Vauxhall Corsa in second and Tesla Model Y in third.
Andrew Humberstone, managing director of Nissan GB, said: ‘This is a landmark moment for a landmark car and it’s great to see how the latest generation Qashqai has struck a chord with car buyers here in the UK.
‘We’re absolutely thrilled to see this car’s increasing success over the last 16 years, and it’s a fitting tribute to the skills and talents of Nissan’s excellent design, engineering, production and sales teams all around the UK.’
While it may have been good news for Nissan, the new car market overall suffered from lack of supply of new models caused by disruption to supply chains.
The well-documented semiconductor shortage continued to impact new car production resulting in just 1.61m new cars being sold in 2022.
That total is a 2 per cent fall from the 1.65m registered in 2021 and 700,000 down (-30 per cent) on the 2.31m sold pre-Covid in 2019.
While the figures might look bad, with demand outstripping supply for new cars many dealers have in fact booked record profits thanks to selling new cars with no discounts.
Many buyers have also switched to used models instead of waiting, inflating prices and again boosting car dealer profit margins.
The latest Car Dealer Top 100 – our list of the most profitable dealers in the UK – showed profits soared by £950m to £2.6bn in 2021 for the firms on our league table.
Eddie Hawthorne, boss of the most profitable dealer group Arnold Clark, labelled it a ‘Carlsberg year’ for the motor trade.
Pure electric vehicles sales were up 20 per cent year on year in 2022 while diesel accounted for just 10 per cent of the market.
In December, sales rose 18 per cent year on year to 128,000 units with 33 per cent EVs – but this was boosted by a boat load of Teslas arriving for their quarterly delivery slot to the UK.
SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes described 2022 as ‘a very difficult year’ but insisted there are signs that supply problems are ‘beginning to ease’.
He said: ‘Manufacturers have really struggled to be able to make the vehicles in sufficient quantities, primarily due to semiconductor shortages but there are other parts shortages behind that as well.
‘Lockdowns in China have not helped, high logistics costs, more pressure on raw materials.
‘The automotive market remains adrift of its pre-pandemic performance but could well buck wider economic trends by delivering significant growth in 2023.
‘To secure that growth – which is increasingly zero emission growth – government must help all drivers go electric and compel others to invest more rapidly in nationwide charging infrastructure.’
The SMMT is predicting car sales will rebound in 2023 as supply improves. It thinks 1.85m cars will be sold this year, despite the rising cost of living and a recession.
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