New car registrations fall to lowest level for two decades

New car registrations fell to their lowest levels in September for more than two decades, according to figures from the industry's trade body.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said new registrations dropped 35% compared with the same period in September 2020.

Falling car production has been blamed on an ongoing global shortage of computer chips.

However sales of electric cars are rising rapidly, the SMMT said.

While the car market as a whole has suffered through the pandemic, more than 32,000 electric cars were registered in one month in September, almost as many as registered in 2019 - 37,850 electric cars.

Meanwhile, just 214,000 cars were sold in September - the lowest total for the month since the current registration system for Great Britain was introduced 23 years ago.

About 1.63 million new cars were registered in 2020, compared with 2.3 million in 2019 - a decline of 29%.

It was also the biggest one-year fall since World War Two, when factories were turned over to military production, the SMMT said in January.

Second-hand car sales in the UK have more than doubled in the last few months due to a shortage of new models.

Year-on-year, the used car market grew 108.6% in the second quarter, with more than 2.2 million vehicles changing hands, according to the trade body.

Increased demand led to a rise in sales of older used cars, with only 12.7% of all vehicles sold being made within the last three years, the lowest on record.

In August, SMMT boss Mike Hawes said many consumers had turned to the second-hand market due to the shortage of new cars at a time of "increased need for personal mobility with people remaining wary of public transport as they return to work".

When lockdowns forced production lines to halt, microchip manufacturers diverted the chips that would normally go into new cars to the consumer electronics market, and supply is yet to fully recover.