According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, there was a 10.4% reduction in new car sales up to April 2025 year on year which indicates that some people are keeping their cars for longer. Interestingly, Battery Electric Vehicles have seen an increase of 3.5% in market share since last year.
Optimistically, Mazda, Alfa Romeo and Peugeot have seen a resurgence in sales with breakaway brands, Cupra and Polestar showing good increases. Chinese brand BYD, has achieved a phenomenal 631.35% market share increase whilst Tesla has suffered a 1.02% reduction in one year. Did Elon Musk make too many faux pas within Washington ?
Fortunately, US car export tariffs have reduced from 27.5% to 10% to apply to a quota of 100,000 UK cars, almost the total the UK exported last year. More Chinese-made electric vehicles will continue to flood the UK market because as yet, there are no tariffs enforced by the UK government.
BYD, Omodo, Jaecoo, Genesis – watch this space…
As for who’ll attend ?
I suspect Mazda will – they were on the steering pad last year after a lengthy absence and I predict Bentley and Audi will do a no-show. Jeeps will traverse the off-road course – probably without an instructor and maybe they’ll all be returned without any water ingress ?
It’ll be warmer this year – last year felt like the coldest out of eighteen years of my attendance. Enjoy.
10th May 2025
Words and photos are copyright of Sotiris Vassiliou
Statistics are courtesy of SMMT
