new car registrations in the united kingdom rose for the sixth straight month recording a 147 annual rise in january due to robust sales of electric vehicles and large fleets and fullyear sales are expected to top last years an industry body said on monday the society of motor manufacturers and traders smmt said car registrations for the month amounted to 131994 units marking the uk car industrys best start to a year since january 2020 it added that it expects sales this year to rise more than 11 to 179 million new cars and forecast registrations to touch 196 million units in 2024 advt registrations for both years however are expected to be considerably below the prepandemic sales of 231 million units in 2019 due to strained supply chains and a costofliving crisis that has seen consumers limit bigticket purchases the uks auto market has struggled with shortages of parts over the last two years in particular semiconductor chips while buyers battle inflationary pressures that worsened last year hybrid electric vehicles hevs comprised 144 of new car registrations however battery electric vehicles bevs made up only 131 of new registrations in january compared with an annual share of 166 in 2022 bev registrations jumped 198 to 17294 units the smmt expects plugin vehicles to comprise more than a fourth of new registrations this year 32 higher than the previous year but said the roll out of infrastructure needed to charge them is failing to keep pace the industry body said the infrastructure rollout targets and regulating service standards needed to be mandated to give drivers certainty they could always find a working available charger infrastructure must be built ahead of demand else poor provision risks delaying the electric transition smmt said registrations of large fleets surged nearly 37 to 69540 units during the month the industry body said reflecting some easing of supply issues advt also readbritains 2022 car production hits over sixdecade lowsmmt an automotive trade association in the uk said 775014 cars were made in britain in 2022 that is 98 less than 2021 and 405 below the 2019 prepandemic levels it is the lowest annual output level since 1956see more details reuters published on feb 7 2023 at 0824 am ist telegram facebook copy link be the first one to comment comment now comments comment now read comment 1 all comments post post find this comment offensive choose your reason below and click on the submit button this will alert our moderators to take actions reasons for reporting foul language defamatory inciting hatred against a certain community out of context spam others report join the community of 2m industry professionals subscribe to our newsletter to get latest insights analysis download etauto app get realtime updates save your favourite articles scan to download app electric vehicles united kingdom society of motor manufacturers and traders car industry hybrid electric vehicles battery electric vehicles homenewsindustryuk new car sales rise in january fullyear sales to top last year