New car sales last month were down around 13% on the pre-pandemic April average, preliminary figures show.
Around 141,000 new cars were registered in the UK in April, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said.
That is approximately a 30-fold increase on the same month in 2020, when the country was in a full coronavirus lockdown.
But it is about 13% lower than the April average between 2010 and 2019.
Final figures will be released by the SMMT at 9am.
Dealerships were allowed to reopen across the UK last month after more than three months of closure.
Jim Holder, editorial director of magazine and website What Car?, said the coming months will be “critical” to the automotive industry’s recovery from the pandemic.
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The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has said that April’s 13.9% rise in new car registrations show that there is “light at the end of the tunnel” after COVID-19.
Car retailers across the UK were able to drive the UK automotive sector to 141,483 registrations last month, following the April 12 reopening of showrooms in England and later return of physical trading in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
And while the result leaves the sector’s 567,108 registrations year-to-date remain some 32.5% down on the average recorded over the past decade, the positive result prompted the industry body to upgrade its forecasts for 2021 as a whole.
UK new car sales rise over 3,000% from last year s lockdown low autoblog.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from autoblog.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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