THE slump in new car sales continued in November with deliveries of new cars falling by almost two per cent in the UK.

This latest drop, of 1.9 per cent, came on top of a six per cent year-on-year reduction in sales in October and is the third decline in four months according to the latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

Of the 153,610 new cars which hit the roads in November, fewer than four in ten were bought by private owners reflecting a drop in demand which has now continued for two years.

Although conventionally-powered cars continued to dominate the market, November saw double-digit falls in registrations of petrol (-17.7 per cent) and diesel (-10.1 per cent) models. Hybrid and plug-in hybrid uptake also declined, by -3.6 per cent and -1.2 per cent respectively.

Heavy manufacturer discounting brought another big increase in sales of battery electric vehicles which rose for an eleventh successive month, up 58.4 per cent representing a 25.1 per cent share of the overall market.

The industry now expects the UK's BEV market share to be 18.7 per cent in 2024, although a strong December performance could raise that to 19 per cent - still, however, short of the 22 per cent government-mandated target for the year.

Even so, Britain is Europe's second biggest new BEV market by volume and is closing the gap on leader Germany reflecting long-term manufacturer investment in new models, with more than 130 zero emission choices now available, says the SMMT.

Top selling electric model in November was the Tesla Model Y, which was also placed third in the overall sales charts behind the MINI Cooper and Nissan Qashqai in first and second places respectively.