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New car orders were down by 5% in the first two weeks of March, when compared to same period last year, as dealers enhanced their digital retailing during lockdown.
A study from lead management business Dealerweb suggests strong conversion rates are being achieved despite overall enquiries falling by 14% for new cars and 7% for used.
The data also shows the average price of a new vehicle sold in March increased from £29,615 to £33,546 for new vehicles and from £18,172 to £20,657 for used.
James Hill, managing director of Dealerweb, said: “Dealers and their partners have worked hard to transform the digital retail experience over the past 12 months. It has enabled customers to buy a vehicle remotely with confidence and the minimum of fuss.
Car manufacturers and the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) have been accused of “scaremongering” in their efforts to lobby the UK Government over its 2030 ban on diesel and petrol cars.
Click the thumbs up >The Covid crisis has coincided with an unprecedented hive of activity at the helm of the UK’s fleet manufacturers, with the appointment of five new fleet directors in little more than a year.
FCA promoted Iain Montgomery at the start of 2020, a month after Craig Cavanagh filled the vacant head of fleet position at Seat. And already this year, Rob Morris has taken the fleet reins at Volvo while Scott Westerby has become head of fleet at PSA.
Like those other recent appointees, Volkswagen UK head of fleet Nick O’Neill has had to wrestle with the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus on the macro and social-economic environment. But he has also seen it give a helpful boost to trends that were already materialising, trends that are influencing the direction in which the corporate market is heading, including the direction in which the corporate market is heading.
Click the thumbs up >Fiat will reward the most economical drivers of its new Fiat 500 electric vehicle (EV) with a new form of cryptocurrency that can be exchanged for vouchers to be spent on Amazon, Apple, Netflix or Spotify.
The Stellantis-owned Italian carmaker turned to UK-based sustainable-tech start-up Kiri Technologies to develop the e-Mobility by Stellantis scheme, which rewards New 500 drivers with KiriCoin.
A Fiat app is used to check the number of KiriCoin collected, based on an eco:Score, with one kilometre of city driving said to be more or less equivalent to one KiriCoin, with each KiriCoin worth two euro cents.