New car sales fell for the first time in six years last year with demand for diesel cars plunging by almost a fifth.<\/p>\n
In total, there were around 2.5 million cars registered, according to industry body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).<\/p>\n
The figure was down 5.6% from 2016, while diesel sales fell 17% as higher taxes and pollution fears hit demand.<\/p>\n
SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes said he expected car sales to continue to drop this year, predicting a 5 to 7% fall.<\/p>\n
The figures are preliminary, with final numbers for the year due to be published later.<\/p>\n
What’s gone wrong in the UK car market?<\/p>\n
Car sales: six charts that tell a story<\/p>\n
How toxic is your car exhaust?<\/p>\n
What does the diesel change mean for you?<\/p>\n
Mr Hawes blamed the sales fall on declining business and consumer confidence, but pointed out last year’s performance followed two years of record sales.<\/p>\n
“We need to put it into context. This was still the third best year in a decade and the sixth best ever,” he added.<\/p>\n
Mr Hawes said that confusion about the future of diesel had fuelled a backlash against diesel cars.<\/p>\n
Diesel vehicles produce the overwhelming majority of nitrogen oxide gases coming from roadside sources.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New car sales fell for the first time in six years last year with demand for diesel cars plunging by almost a fifth. In total, there were around 2.5 million cars registered, according to industry body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). The figure was down 5.6% from 2016, while diesel sales fell 17% as higher taxes and pollution fears hit demand. SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes said he expected car sales to continue to drop this year, predicting a 5 to 7% fall. The figures are preliminary,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":13626,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[30,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13625"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13625"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13627,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13625\/revisions\/13627"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}