Latest SMMT data shows that fleet sales rose 8.7% over the whole of 2014, reaching a total of 1,178,416 units compared with 1,084,279 for 2013. The sub-25 business sector saw even stronger growth, with 2014 registrations up 12.0% to 118,520 units from 105,836 the previous year. And private registrations also continued to grow, with a rise of 9.8% for 2014 to 1,179,499 units.

Overall the market saw 2,476,435 new cars registered in the UK in 2014 – up 9.3% on 2013 and representing the most registrations in a calendar year since 2004. The growth compares to the EU average of 5.7% and means the UK remains the second largest market in the EU behind Germany and ahead of France, Italy and Spain.

2014 also bears the distinction of being the fourth largest year for car registrations of all time; only 2002, 2003 and 2004 saw more cars registered.

Every month in 2014 saw an increase, with December’s 8.7% rise marking the 34th consecutive month of growth. The month also saw fleet registrations rise 7.4% whilst business registrations were up an impressive 46.4%. Private registrations saw growth of 5.7%.

Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said: ‘UK new car registrations returned to pre-recession levels in 2014, as pent-up demand from the recession years combined with confidence in the economy saw consumer demand for the latest models grow consistently and strongly.

‘The year was particularly strong for alternatively-fuelled vehicles as increased choice, coupled with a growing desire for reduced costs and greater efficiency, resulted in a quadrupling of plug-in car registrations over 2013. With a variety of new plug-in models expected in 2015, this area of the market will continue to grow significantly. For the market as a whole, we expect a more stable 2015 as demand levels off.’

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