Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders

The really big success from the Cherry brands have been plug-in hybrids.

Chinese brands registered almost 20,000 vehicles last month in August, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

They accounted for 21% of UK's new car market and were the second largest regional brand group behind European marks.

The EX5, the electric SUV, was their first car here.

That was 2009.

According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, around 70% of vehicles bought through the scheme were additional sales that wouldn't have occurred.

Yeah, if they bought that back and said, we're offering money, government money, off a new EV if you traded an old diesel.

We still have one in the driveway we use for dump runs because I don't want to get our nice cars dirty.

British Retail Consortium also had some, uh, slightly more positive news out, and then private new car registrations up by a fifth in August too.

Although the people who put that out, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, are saying beware, though.

September's the important month in all of this when the new plates come out for cars.

That gives you a flavor o- of what he was referring to when he, you know, he's talked about this slight improvement in consumer and business confidence, and it is mainly based on surveys of how people are feeling, and it is far from the whole picture, is it, Robert? And that's essentially it.

It does.

And indeed, the, the largest of the car industry lobby groups, the SMMT, has been pushing extremely hard on one of the points, uh, David alluded to there, which is the electric, um, uh, car sales targets, which they argue, and this is a bone of contention 'cause not everyone agrees on this, but they argue, uh, is, is one of the key things that's thr- uh, throttling, um, uh, the, the ability of the UK for them to continue operating in, in, in the UK.

What I'm finding really interesting, um, and so I would say that there is a potential a little bit of hope here, is actually if you then delve down beyond the car manufacturers into the supply chain, what you're seeing now is this supply chain going, "Actually, should we do something different?" You're seeing swathes of them going towards defense, where a lot of money is coming, um, and, and being spent on defense.

And actually, what they do is not that much different.

These came out actually last night, I think it was.

So how many electric cars did Britain sell in August, 2026? SMMT published the figures from this morning.

August is always a low volume month, so September's plate change is the number that matters.

Before anyone gets excited, one thing about August.

Here's your daily 2-minute manufacturing briefing.

UK vehicle production fell 11.6% year-on-year in July to 63,655 units, according to figures released today by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

Weaker exports and the earlier scheduling of summer maintenance shutdowns contributed to the decline.

Made Smarter Yorkshire has launched a new £400,000 cybersecurity initiative to help SME manufacturers protect their people, systems and operations as factories become increasingly digital and connected.