REMEMBER the song It’s Good News Week? It could have been written for Nissan.
After Wednesday’s impressive set of statistics revealing a record year of car production at the company’s Sunderland plant, today’s new car registration figures from the SMMT reveal that the company sold a whopping 96,269 cars in the UK during 2011.
This meant Nissan grabbed a market share for the whole year of just a shade below five per cent – 4.96 per cent to be precise. In the whole of 2010, Nissan sold 89,681 cars (4.42 per cent market share). In percentage terms, sales over the full year were up 7.35 per cent.
Although the year as a whole was hugely successful, December’s sales figures did show a drop when compared to December 2010. Nissan sold 5,789 cars last month, with a market share of 4.86 per cent. In December 2010, 6,403 cars were shifted, representing a market share of 5.17 per cent.
Its top-sellling model of 2011 was the Qashqai – which was the eighth best selling car in December (2,580 units) and ninth over the full year (39,406 units).
The SMMT numbers revealed that demand for new cars overall was down 4.4 per cent in 2011 compared to the year before. A total of 1,941,253 units were registered last year.
The SMMT’s chief executive, Paul Everitt, said: ‘Weak economic growth will make trading conditions tough in 2012, but record numbers of new and updated models, significantly improved fuel efficiency and exciting new technologies will help to encourage consumers into showrooms.
‘Business and consumer confidence will be the key to a successful year, so it will be important that government delivers on its growth strategy and helps to resolve instability in the eurozone.’