A total of 89,718 fleet cars were registered last month, up 15.2% on October 2013’s figure of 77,875. Meanwhile sub-25 business registrations rose 10.3% from 8,207 in October 2013 to 9,056 last month. Retail registrations also saw a large rise, up 13.6%.

On the back of this growth, total new car registrations jumped 14.2% in October to 179,714 units, marking the 32nd consecutive month of growth.

The October surge means that 2,137,910 cars have now been registered in the year-to-date – marking the first time the market has passed two million in October since 2007.

The fleet market is up 8.1% for the year to date, with 994,487 vehicles registered compared to 920,098 for the first ten months of 2013. The business market has seen even stronger YtD growth, up 16.0%, with 106,099 vehicles registered so far in 2014 compared to 91,472 for the same period in 2013.

Rising demand for alternatively fuelled vehicles continues, with the market up more than 50% in both month and year-to-date.

With the October performance exceeding expectations, the SMMT said that demand for new cars set to stabilise in coming months.

Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said: ‘The October new car market outperformed expectations, with registrations showing the strongest growth in a month since March’s 18% rise. With economic confidence still rising, customers continue to benefit from attractive financial packages on exciting new models.

‘We still expect the overall market to level off as we head towards 2015, but the exception to that rule will be alternatively-fuelled vehicles, demand for which will continue to accelerate.’