Promising start for new car market as robust consumer appetite continues into 2025
31sr January 2025 –2025 has got off to a promising start for the new car market with Auto Trader reporting a positive increase in consumer interest for new cars in January. According to its data, demand on its platform has not only risen following the traditional seasonal slow-down, with visits to its new car platform increasing 19% month-on-month (MoM), but are up a solid 8% on the same period last year.
Despite taking the title as 2024’s hottest new car overall, Volkswagen’s Golf will have to contend with second place this month. It was overtaken by the Land Rover Range Rover, which tops January’s list of most in demand new cars with a 4.8% share of all new car enquiries sent to retailers on Auto Trader (vs the Golf’s 3.4%). And not content with first place, the top three is rounded off by another legendary Land Rover, the popular Defender which received a 3.1% share.
Models aside, there’s been no change at the top of the leaderboard of most popular new car brands, as BMW (a 14.6% share of enquiries), Land Rover (13.6%) and Volkswagen (7%) have all maintained their position in the top three, albeit just in the case of Volkswagen. It was nearly pipped to the post by its fellow German rival Audi (6.8%).
MG leads the way on electric but MINI moves up the rankings
Looking at the data at a more granular level also reveals a positive start to the year for brand new electric vehicles (EVs), with the share of enquiries rising from 3.8 percentage points on the same period last year (14.1% to 17.9%). It continues the robust EV demand seen on Auto Trader since September, which has been helped by the increase in incentives offered by manufacturers to stimulate demand to meet the ZEV mandate targets.
The average discount applied to new electric cars in January has fallen slightly, from 12% in December to 11.5%. However, with ZEV mandate targets accelerating to 28% this year, it’s unlikely this will be a long-term trend. Discounts on new cars more broadly have also softened, down from 9.3% to an average of 8.8% this month.
MG, the British badged Chinese marque, is once again the most popular electric brand on Auto Trader this month, generating nearly one in five (17.1%) of all brand-new electric car enquiries sent to retailers. It was followed by BMW with a respectable 10.9% share. In third place is MINI, a British badged German marque, which has recorded a noticeable rise in the charts over the last 12 months, climbing from a share of just 1.4% to 8.2%.
On a more immediate scale, Skoda and Kia saw demand for their electric models rise at the fastest rate, with both brands recording a 2.7 percentage point increase in EV market share between December and January, climbing from a share of 2.4% and 5.3% respectively.
Kia’s EV3 closes in on the MG4 as the UK’s most popular new electric car
The most popular fully electric car on Auto Trader is still MG’s MG4, which is generating almost one in ten (9.5%) of all new EV enquiries in January. Whilst it was the UK’s most in-demand new car in 2024, its position could be under threat from Kia’s EV3 which has shot up the rankings into second place. The all-electric Korean SUV has generated a 4.4% share of enquiries this month, which was a year-on-year percentage point increase of 2.2%, a doubling of its market share in just a month.
Commenting, Auto Trader’s New Car Performance Director, Bex Kennett, said: “It’s been an encouraging start for the new car market in 2025. The solid levels of demand we saw in the closing months of the year have accelerated into January as many potential buyers begin researching their new car in earnest ahead of the calendar’s busiest car buying period. In today’s challenging market conditions, it represents an opportunity manufacturers and retailers can ill afford to miss; getting available stock in front of buyers will be essential to converting interest into sales.
