After the lull imposed by lockdown, July saw an 11.3% increase on the same month in 2019, with 174,887 new vehicle registrations.
With staggered reopening in June for England, Scotland and Wales, July was the first full month of trading for the motor industry for the whole of the UK.
Whether the upturn is set to continue for the rest of the year is doubtful. The industry is currently catching up after lockdown stopped people from changing their cars. Most of the main manufacturers are offering incentives on finance to attract new sales but with the end of the furlough scheme and redundancies expected across several industries people are going to be less inclined to make big purchases.