Car Makers Premier League – February 2011

It’s time once more for the Car Makers Premier League where each and every month we examine the top 20 manufacturers by number of units registered and see just how they look when compared with the previous month. 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?

February’s statistics (based on the SMMT figures for UK new car registrations in February 2011) turned out to be better than a lot of industry “experts” and most people in the trade were expecting, with the headline figure for the month being a 7.7% decline to 63,424 units.

In February 2010 the market, buoyed by scrappage, recorded a 26.4% increase on the previous year to 68,686 units with nearly 20% of these registrations being down to the scheme.

Overall the top 10 positions outperformed the market this month with the top two of Mercedes (a creditable 38% up on February 2010) and Nissan (37% up on last year) being some distance ahead of the competition. In third place with a rather more modest 28% increase is Audi. In fact all the top 10 managed to improve on February 2010 and 6 of the top 10 positions belong to German owned manufacturers (Mercedes, Audi, Mini, BMW, Skoda and VW).

This month we have lost Land Rover (once again) and Volvo who both failed to register enough unites to put them in the top 20 (740 units – down 46% and 651 units – down 19% respectively). We welcome back Suzuki this month whose 5% increase to 820 units brings them back to 10th position. We also welcome back Mini shooting back into the top 20 at number 6 with a 21% increase on last year (1,173 units up from 973).

Bad news this month for Kia, as they prop up the table with a disappointing 54% decline, down of course almost entirely to the loss of scrappage registrations. Also a steady decline for Renault, their lack of form recently could see them end up in a relegation dog fight.

A “better than expected” month and the SMMT remain upbeat; “February new car registrations were better than expected and whilst below 2010 levels, they were significantly ahead of 2009 and on an improving trend.”

Plate change month March should be very interesting indeed.

Car Makers Premier League February 2011

POS	Manufacturer	Feb 2010	Feb 2011	Diff	%
1(2)		1,923	2,661	738	38
2(10)		2,098	2,881	783	37
3(4)		2,957	3,783	826	28
4(8)		7,950	9,812	1,862	23
5(9)		1,663	2,049	386	23
6(-)		973	1,173	200	21
7(1)		3,141	3,577	436	14
8(3)		1,574	1,690	116	7
9(16)		7,132	7,569	437	6
10(-)		778	820	42	5
11(6)		2,701	2,499	(202)	(7)
12(5)		904	820	(84)	(9)
13(12)		3,533	3,052	(481)	(14)
14(14)		1,587	1,282	(305)	(19)
15(18)		1,752	1,343	(409)	(23)
16(11)		9,915	7,542	(2,373)	(24)
17(20)		3,007	2,032	(975)	(32)
18(15)		3,439	1,956	(1,483)	(43)
19(17)		3,559	1,807	(1,752)	(49)
20(19)		3,366	1,563	(1,803)	(54)