According to the latest data released by the Association of Automobile Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), the British second-hand car market grew by 6.5% in the first quarter of 2024, with 1967923 cars finding new owners, which is the strongest start of the year since before the 2019 pandemic.
This growth marks 16 consecutive months of growth, reflecting the recovery of new car market supply, which in turn improves the supply and selection of used cars. So far this year, the trading volume of second-hand cars has been rising every month. Despite the strong growth, the trading volume in this quarter is still 2.6% lower than the level before the COVID-19 epidemic.
More and more BEVs are entering the used car market. In the first quarter, the sales volume increased by more than 2/3 (71.0%) to 41505 vehicles, with a market share of 2.1%, a record high. The sales volume of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) also continued to grow, with a turnover of 74502 vehicles, up 49.3%. Plug in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) are also becoming more and more popular, with the sales volume increasing by 42.5% to 22065 vehicles.
In this quarter, the traditional power system still played a leading role. The sales of gasoline vehicles increased by 7.7% to 1130396, while the sales of diesel vehicles decreased by 1.3% to 697718. Together, these vehicles accounted for 92.9% (1828114 vehicles) of all transactions. As more and more buyers turned to electric vehicles, the market share shrank by more than two percentage points from the first quarter of 2023.
The super mini car is still the most popular model, with 640711 cars changing hands, an increase of 7.2%. The middle and low-end models ranked second increased by 9.2%, with the largest increase in sales reaching 45301. The top three are dual-use vehicles, which are the same as the same period in 2023, accounting for 16% of the market share, with the highest growth rate of 10.3%. These models together accounted for 3/4 of the total vehicle sales in the same period, while on the other side, only the administrative class, luxury cars and medium and high-end models declined, by 3.5%, 2% and 0.5% respectively.
The top three colors remain unchanged from the first quarter of 2023, with black cars accounting for 21.3% of sales. The most popular new car color, grey, ranked second, but grew fastest among the top 10, with an increase of 10.7%; Blue remained in the third place, with trading volume increasing by 6.2%. Gold and cream were the only colors in the top 20 to decline, down 2.5% and 0.6% respectively.
