Established European brands, led by BMW, Volkswagen and Land Rover dominate consumer interest across overall and EV rankings on Autotrader.
Autotrader’s latest data shows high levels of consumer engagement across the new car market.
Bex Kennett, head of new car at Autotrader, said: “The September plate change is delivering a clear boost in consumer activity, with visits and retailer listings up both month-on-month and year-on-year.
“What stands out most in this data is the overwhelming strength of the established European manufacturers with brands such as BMW, Volkswagen and Land Rover capturing significant buyer interest across both traditional fuel types and new electric models.
“While strategic discounting on petrol models is actively helping to keep the broader market moving, the sustained interest in premium European nameplates shows that brand strength and product appeal remain fundamental drivers of buyer intent as we head into the autumn.”
New car visits to Autotrader are up 4% YoY and 7% MoM in September. New car stock volume has also climbed 4% MoM.
Buyer interest is not being driven solely by price cuts or challenger-brand momentum as established European manufacturers and familiar nameplates are attracting strong levels of engagement.
BMW led overall brand demand (10.7% of all new car enquiries), followed by Volkswagen (9.0%) and Land Rover (8.7%).
This overall performance is largely driven by their electric vehicles as BMW took almost 10% of all new EV enquiries.
Driven by strong demand for the iX1 (second most popular model at 3.7% share) and iX3 (fourth model at 3.4% share), BMW led overall electric brand enquiries ahead of Renault (6.6%) and Hyundai (6.4%).
In the model rankings, the iconic Volkswagen Golf led with 4.9% of total leads, while Land Rover had three models in the top six: Range Rover Sport, Range Rover, and Defender 110.
The retro-styled Renault 5 E-Tech, generated 5.7% of all EV enquiries.
European manufacturers dominate the front of the pack, occupying the top five spots in the electric rankings.
Skoda had two models in the top 10 while Tesla and several newer Chinese market entrants did not appear in the top electric model rankings.
