It’s time once more for the Car Makers Premier League where each and every month we examine the top 20 manufacturers with regard to units registered and see just how they look when compared with the previous month. Who are the Chelsea’s, Man United’s and Arsenal’s at the top and the Portsmouth’s, Burnley’s and Hull’s bringing up the rear? At the end of the year who will be crowned champion? Who will drop out of the top 20 as the year unfolds and which high achievers will be promoted?
Carrying on with the season and May’s statistics (based on the SMMT figures for UK new car registrations in May 2010) continue the encouraging theme of recent months with all but three of the top twenty manufacturers being able to post an increase on May 2009. The headline figure for the month is a 13.5% increase but it ought to be remembered that the market was already down 24.8% in May 2009 on the year before. Overall the top 15 positions all outperformed the market this month.
March was the last month for scrappage but registrations carried forward are still trickling into the figures with just under 3% of May’s registrations being down to the scheme. What a difference the post-scrappage marketplace has made to the league with recent heavyweights Hyundai and Kia dropping to 6th and 11th positions respectively although both still managed double digit increases (38% and 26%).
This month there’s a new sheriff in town as Renault storm to the top with an astonishing 132% increase on this time last year. 12 months ago who was predicting that? This month we lose Seat who once again swaps places with Land Rover who rocket back in at number 2 with a 66% rise on last May.
More bad news this month for Honda, who now languish in last place with a dismal 23% drop in registration on last May, which of course was already depressed.
All in all not a bad month and certainly not as bad as many were predicting but with the SMMT expecting the coming months to be “extremely challenging” (or in football parlance “squeaky bum time”) we shall be keeping a keen eye on developments.
So we suspect that really is it for scrappage as the influence on June’s figures should be negligible, so car makers you really are on your own now lads.
| POS | Manufacturer | May 2009 | May 2010 | Diff | % |
| 1(4) |  | 2941 | 6812 | 3871 | 132 |
| 2(-) | 
| 1630 | 2713 | 1083 | 66 |
| 3(6) | 
| 1986 | 2969 | 983 | 49 |
| 4(10) | 
| 4562 | 6734 | 2172 | 48 |
| 5(8) | 
| 2584 | 3694 | 1110 | 43 |
| 6(3) | 
| 3325 | 4581 | 1256 | 38 |
| 7(5) | 
| 2650 | 3445 | 795 | 30 |
| 8(7) | 
| 3188 | 4093 | 905 | 28 |
| 9(9) | 
| 6994 | 8903 | 1909 | 27 |
| 10(11) | 
| 7006 | 8881 | 1875 | 27 |
| 11(1) | 
| 3331 | 4194 | 863 | 26 |
| 12(16) | 
| 2634 | 3256 | 622 | 24 |
| 13(18) | 
| 15386 | 17771 | 2385 | 16 |
| 14(13) | 
| 7165 | 8208 | 1043 | 15 |
| 15(12) | 
| 11989 | 13516 | 1527 | 13 |
| 16(14) | 
| 4694 | 5280 | 586 | 12 |
| 17(15) | 
| 5305 | 5327 | 22 | 0 |
| 18(19) | 
| 22293 | 21300 | (993) | (4) |
| 19(17) | 
| 7081 | 6276 | (805) | (11) |
| 20(20) | 
| 5822 | 4470 | (1352) | (23) |
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