The highest 10 best-selling new automobiles of 2022 have been confirmed by official business figures this morning – and it is a British-made motor that topped the chart for the primary time in 24 years.
Nissan’s Qashqai SUV, which is constructed on the model’s Sunderland manufacturing unit within the North East, dethroned Vauxhall’s Corsa to change into the nation’s most-bought motor of final 12 months.
It’s the first indigenous automobile to be take the primary gross sales spot since 1998, when the Ford Fiesta – then in-built Dagenham – took the crown.
This is a rundown of the ten most-registered new automobiles of final 12 months.
The ten best-selling new automobiles: These are the fashions Britons purchased in highest numbers in 2022. This is our countdown of the 12 months’s hottest fashions
Official figures launched by the Society of Motor Producers and Merchants this morning confirmed that gross sales of latest automobiles hit a 30-year low in 2022.
The 1.61million items offered within the UK final 12 months is down two per cent in contrast with the 1.65million registered throughout the earlier 12 months and 1 / 4 under pre-coronavirus ranges.
Business bosses mentioned producers had been unable to fulfill demand for brand new automobiles because of world provide chain points equivalent to semiconductor shortages, pushed by coronavirus lockdowns in China.
The final time so few new fashions had been purchased by Britons was in 1992 with 1.59million registrations that 12 months.
But, the 2022 gross sales figures had been sufficient for the UK to reclaim its place as Europe’s second largest new automobile market behind Germany – relegating France to the bronze-medal place.
And these are the ten fashions that Britons purchased most examples of…
10. Ford Fiesta
Value: from £19,330
That is probably the final time we’ll see the Fiesta nameplate within the record of the highest 10 best-selling new automobiles in Britain after Ford confirmed it would stop manufacturing of the favored supermini in June this 12 months
The Ford Fiesta has been a long-running favorite amongst Britons. The truth is, it is our hottest automobile of all time, with greater than 4.8million examples offered within the UK because it first hit showrooms in 1976, topping Britain’s gross sales chart 16 instances in its historical past.
It was the most-bought new automobile for 12 consecutive years from 2009 to 2020 earlier than dropping its crown to the Vauxhall Corsa final 12 months, with the Fiesta slipping out of the highest 10 fully as Ford reportedly targeting business automobile outputs because of rising pandemic-related demand.
Nonetheless, in 2022 it returned to the rankings of the most effective sellers – although solely simply, with sufficient registrations to safe for tenth spot general.
And the Fiesta is unlikely to be seen within the high 10 once more, with Ford not too long ago confirming that the immensely-popular mannequin will stop manufacturing in June 2023, with the model set to interchange it with a brand new electrified automobile with a recent nameplate.
Ford has already began to limit Fiesta specs, which is why the beginning value for this small hatchback is surprisingly steep at over £19,000.
9. Ford Kuga
Value: from £30,755
The Kuga is the bigger of two Ford SUVs to make it into the highest 10 best-selling new automobiles of 2022. Competitively priced and out there with petrol or plug-in hybrid energy, it’s a tempting choice for consumers of family-size motors in Britain
Showcasing simply how fashionable SUVs have change into in Britain in recent times, the Ford Kuga is the primary of six sports activities utility autos and crossovers to function within the high 10 greatest sellers of 2022.
The Kuga widely-regarded as top-of-the-line mid-sized SUVs available on the market, combining a variety of environment friendly and powerful engines, good practicality and luxury, and arguably the most effective driving expertise in its phase.
Petrol variations are competitively priced from somewhat below £31,000, whereas the plug-in hybrid choices undercut a lot of its petrol-electric rivals.
Cost the battery of the PHEV model and it’ll present as much as 35 miles of electric-only driving, which is a few 15 miles greater than the common every day mileage of UK motorists.
Having did not push its method into the highest 10 sellers in 2021, it managed to nudge its method into ninth spot final 12 months with Ford sellers promoting extra examples of the family-friendly SUV than its Fiesta.
8. Volkswagen Golf
Value: from £25,610
The Golf has slipped two locations down the rankings, having been the sixth best-seller in 2021. With Volkswagen rising its electrical automobile vary, its fashionable household hatchback seems to have taken a success
Volkswagen has only one mannequin within the record of Britain’s most-bought new automobiles of 2022 – and it would not be troublesome to guess which one it’s!
The Golf hatchback has been a perennial favorite, although its reputation appears to be heading right into a decline.
VW offered fewer examples than it did final 12 months, and the Golf has now slipped to eighth general within the rankings. Again in 2020, solely the Ford Fiesta and Vauxhall Corsa was offered in better numbers.
Nonetheless, gross sales of the long-running household hatch had been additionally probably impacted by the semiconductor scarcity, which might have seen VW prioritise element availability for its rising vary of fully-electric ‘ID’ autos.
Having solely hit the market in two years in the past, the Golf stays top-of-the-line household hatchbacks you should buy in showrooms as we speak, and has outperformed the likes of the Ford Focus, Mercedes A-class and Vauxhall Astra – none of which have made it into final 12 months’s high 10.
7. Hyundai Tucson
Value: from £30,140
The Tucson’s seems may not be to all tastes, however the styling appears to be sitting properly with Britons, who’ve purchased sufficient examples of the Hyundai SUV for it to take seventh place general within the reputation standings for 2022
The newest-generation Hyundai Tucson is a high quality mid-size SUV. It is the sister automobile to the Kia Sportage (which we’ll get to very shortly) and epitomises the rise of those Korean manufacturers in recent times by the discharge of competitively-priced – and high quality – autos.
This Mk4 instance was unveiled in 2020 and final 12 months was its first full-year on sale within the UK.
It comes with a novel look that may not be to all tastes, particularly the face of the automobile with its monumental grille that comes with the headlight clusters.
However Britons seem to love the Marmite styling, with the Tucson accruing sufficient gross sales to be the seventh most-registered mannequin final 12 months.
Bought with a selection of hybrid – and plug-in hybrid – engines, numerous specification as customary and a tech-rammed inside, we’re not shocked to see it on this record.
6. Kia Sportage
Value: from £27,800
The Kia Sportage SUV has moved three locations larger within the gross sales chart than final 12 months, and that is regardless of the fifth-generation automobile solely showing in UK showrooms from the center of February 2022
Like its Hyundai Tucson sister automobile, the Sportage has offered in huge numbers in 2022. Nonetheless, not like its Korean sibling, this has been the case for the Kia SUV for a while, with the Sportage typically showing in and across the 10 greatest sellers in recent times.
This newest fifth-generation instance solely hit showrooms from February, which means its look at quantity six on this record has largely been achieved in lower than 11 months.
Since its first arrival in Britain in 1995, greater than 350,000 have been offered, with the outgoing Mk4 mannequin launched in 2016 accounting for practically 200,000 of the overall.
Just like the Tucson, it has distinctive styling – particularly these boomerang-shaped headlights.
It is also very properly outfitted, supremely comfy and gives as much as eight totally different engine choices, all of that are extraordinarily refined.
5. Mini Hatch
2021 registrations: 31,792
2021 rating: third (down 2 locations)
The Mini Hatch stays among the many hottest new automobiles in Britain. In 2023, the BMW-owned model will launch a fourth-generation model
Mini not solely gives the hatchback as a 3 and five-door instance, the battery-powered Mini Electrical can be included in complete gross sales for the hatch – and being the sixth most-bought EV, it might have contributed just a few numbers to the automobile’s general tally.
It continues to be fashionable amongst Britons, regardless of the actual fact the Mini’s British roots are actually within the palms of BMW possession.
Whereas it was the third most-bought new automobile of 2021, final 12 months the third-generation ‘BMW Mini’ slipped two locations to fifth.
This might have been impacted by just a few manufacturing disruptions attributable to semiconductor provide shortages, but additionally a decline in outputs because the model prepares to launch the next-generation automobile later this 12 months.
It’ll see manufacturing of the Mini Electrical shift away from Plant Oxford to a manufacturing unit in China, although the UK manufacturing web site will quickly begin making Mini Convertibles.
4. Ford Puma
Value: from £24,920
The Puma is – for the third consecutive 12 months – the best-selling compact crossover in Britain. It is also Ford’s best-selling mannequin for a second 12 months working
Ford’s smallest crossover, the Puma, has picked up loads of accolades because it first hit UK showrooms in 2020, and is now the volume-selling mannequin within the producer’s ranks, selecting up from the place the Fiesta will depart off.
The Puma is formally the best-selling compact SUV in 2021, extending its reign as the category chief for a 3rd consecutive 12 months.
Which means it has persistently outsold different fashionable automobiles within the phase, which incorporates the Nissan Juke, Skoda Kamiq and Volkswagen T-Cross.
Clients look like drawn to the trendy seems, the promise of an enticing journey and a lift in practicality and driving place over a traditional hatchback.
It’s offered with a selection of 1.0-litre petrol engines and hybrid tech. And additionally it is out there as a potent 200 horsepower ST ‘sizzling’ model, which solely widens its attraction.
3. Tesla Mannequin Y
Value: from £51,990
The Tesla Mannequin Y SUV rose to 3rd general within the 2022 gross sales chart, which was primarily because of an enormous cargo of automobiles arriving in December
The Tesla Mannequin 3 was the large shock of 2021, with the US agency’s electrical saloon taking second place general within the new automobile gross sales chart.
This 12 months, it is the flip of the Mannequin Y SUV to combine it among the many mainstream auto manufacturers.
Its rise to 3rd general within the standings is the results of a large cargo of automobiles arriving in December. The truth is, after the primary eleventh month of the 12 months, the Mannequin Y was languishing down in ninth general within the record with simply 24,887 gross sales.
Most of the autos arriving on British soil final month are more likely to have been pre-registered in a bid to spice up gross sales figures for the battery SUV providing a variety of 267 to 331 miles on a full cost, relying on which specification you go for.
The Mannequin Y, unsurprisingly, can be the best-selling fully-electric automobile of the 12 months, forward of the Mannequin 3 and the Kia e-Niro.
2. Vauxhall Corsa
Value: from £18,065
Vauxhall topped Britain’s new automobile gross sales chart final 12 months with the Corsa, however the plucky supermini has been knocked down one place to the runner’s-up spot in 2022
Vauxhall – rightfully so – made an enormous music and dance about topping the general new automobile gross sales chart in 2021.
Ending Ford’s 50-year reign because the model with the preferred new automobile in Britain – and the Fiesta’s 12-year run on the high of the chart – was hailed a hue scalp for the producer, nevertheless it was unable to carry onto the crown in 2022.
It was unable to match the near-41,000 registrations recorded within the 12 months earlier than, although stays by far Vauxhall’s greatest quantity vendor.
The Corsa slipped to second general within the order, regardless of the electrical Corsa-e boosting gross sales of petrol fashions.
Fleet demand has additionally helped to maintain it close to the highest of the desk and it’s by far the most-bought supermini mannequin in Britain.
1. Nissan Qashqai
Value: from £ 26,045
The Nissan Qashqai is formally the most-bought new automobile of 2022. The Sunderland-made SUV is the primary British-built mannequin to high the gross sales chart in 24 years
The Nissan Qashqai is formally Britain’s most-purchased new automobile of 2022.
Not solely is it the primary time the Japanese model has had a mannequin on the high of the UK gross sales record, the Qashqai has additionally change into the primary UK-built mannequin to high the chart for twenty-four years.
The final time a UK-built automobile hit the primary gross sales spot was the Mk4 Ford Fiesta again in 1998 – the ultimate 12 months that the supermini was produced on the Dagenham plant earlier than meeting shifted to Germany and Spain.
The house-grown Qashqai – which was designed in Paddington, engineered in Cranfield and is in-built Sunderland – was the nation’s best-selling automobile of the final 12 months with 42,704 examples pushed off dealership forecourts throughout the UK in 2022.
To rejoice the achievement, Nissan has even created an unique gold-wrapped Qashqai, in-built honour of the 7,000 UK workers who’ve contributed to its success.
Andrew Humberstone, managing director of Nissan Motor (GB) Ltd, mentioned: ‘This can be a landmark second for a landmark automobile and it’s nice to see how the most recent era Qashqai has struck a chord with automobile consumers right here within the UK.
‘We’re completely thrilled to see this automobile’s rising success during the last 16 years, and it’s a becoming tribute to the talents and skills of Nissan’s wonderful design, engineering, manufacturing and gross sales groups throughout the UK.’
To rejoice the Qashqai turning into the nation’s hottest new automobile in 2022, Nissan has created this one-off gold-wrapped particular automobile
