UK sales plunge 44% in March on coronavirus hit

LONDON -- Registrations in Britain fell by 44 percent in March as the coronavirus crisis hit the economy and forced many would-be buyers to stay at home, data from the SMMT industry body showed on Monday.

Sales were 254,684 units, making it the weakest March since 1999.

March accounted for nearly 20 percent of total registrations in 2019 as it is one of two annual occasions when a new license plate series is issued.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered a shutdown of much of the economy last month as his government sought to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Brand winners/losers

Almost all brands in the UK market saw sales drops last month.

Volkswagen, the top-selling brand, saw its registrations fall 40 percent, while former No. 1 Ford, now in second place, fell 53 percent. Third-placed BMW's volume declined by 42 percent. No. 4 Mercedes-Benz saw sales drop 49 percent. In fifth place, Audi fell 42 percent.

*    Download UK March sales by brand here.

Other brands that saw big drops included Vauxhall (down 67 percent); Citroen (down 64 percent); Dacia (down 60 percent); Fiat (down 60 percent); Renault (down 59 percent); Peugeot (down 59 percent) and Hyundai, which fell 55 percent.

Sales of MG cars increased to 2,736 from 1,814 in March last year. Porsche's volume rose 13 percent to 1,838 vehicles.

Diesel and gasoline-powered cars bore the brunt of the monthly decrease, with companies choosing not to replenish fleets and the public forced to hold off on purchases because showrooms were ordered shut by the government to halt the spread of the virus.

One bright spot was electric vehicles, with battery-driven car purchases rising almost threefold to 11,694 vehicles, the SMMT said.

“It could have been worse had the significant advanced orders placed for the new 2020 plate not been delivered in the early part of the month,” Mike Hawes, CEO of the SMMT, said in a news release. “We should not, however, draw long term conclusions from these figures other than this being a stark realization of what happens when economies grind to a halt.”

The monthly plunge prompted the SMMT to downgrade its outlook for the year, predicting a 25 percent drop from 2019 to 1.73 million registrations. The organization's previous forecast in January predicted a fall of just over 2.5 percent to 2.25 million cars.

The SMMT plans to publish another update later this month.

Through March, UK sales are down 31 percent to 483,557.

The March fall mirrored losses in Europe's other major markets last month. Registrations in Germany slumped by 38 percent. Registrations in France declined by 72 percent. In Italy, sales dropped 85 percent and in Spain registrations fell 69 percent.

Bloomberg contributed to this report