The twenty most registered new cars in Britain last year have been revealed in statistics recently compiled by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA). The Ford Fiesta was by far and away the most registered new car last year and also features the most registered trim level of 2014.
Ford’s Fiesta supermini, which has regularly topped annual registrations in Britain over the last decade, recorded a total of 129,468 registrations through the entirety of 2014. The second most registered car in Britain last year, the Ford Focus, had over 46,000 less registrations compared to the smaller Fiesta.
Ultimately, the Focus registered a total of 83,454 cars last year, enough to put it ahead of the third-placed Vauxhall Corsa which recorded 80,708 registrations. The Volkswagen Golf placed fourth with 74,842 registrations, before a massive gap opens up to the fifth-placed Vauxhall Astra which made 58,888 registrations last year.
Completing the top half of the top 20 is the Fiat 500 (52,815 registrations), the Nissan Qashqai (48,482), VW Polo (46,158) and the Audi A3 (41,716). Completing the top ten for 2014 registrations is the Nissan Juke with 38,225 registrations.
The Nissan crossover is immediately followed by a few premium cars. Including the BMW 3 Series (37,953), the Mercedes C-Class (37,882) and the Range Rover (35,610). Following these luxury models is the Vauxhall Mokka crossover which registered 32,918 units last year.
Completing the top 20 for the most registered models are the BMW 1 Series (31,848), Peugeot 208 (31,215), Vauxhall Insignia (30,627), Vauxhall Zafira (30,364), the Toyota Yaris (30,359) and the MINI Hatch (29,504).
The DVLA has also revealed the most registered trim level of 2014 and coming out on top by a huge margin was the Ford Fiesta in the Zetec trim. As many as 63,706 Fiesta Zetec models were registered last year. The next best-selling trim was the Fiesta Titanium, with 16,201 registrations.
Directly following these two Fiesta trims are the Volksagen Golf SE BlueMotion Tech TDI (14,947), the VW Polo in Match Edition form (14,395) and the Fiat 500 in Lounge trim (13,375).
Another interesting find from the DVLA’s research is the spectacular increase in registrations for electric and other alternative fuel vehicles (emitting under 75g/km). In 2014, the number of such cars registered in Britain was 15,869. That’s more than triple compared to the figure achieved the year before. 4,359 new alternative fuel cars were registered in the UK in 2013.
The majority of alternative fuel car sales in Britain last year can be attributed to the performance of the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. Earlier this month, Mitsubishi announced that it had sold the 10,000th unit of its Outlander PHEV in Britain, just one year after first launching the plug-in hybrid SUV. The Outlander PHEV is now currently outselling all other plug-in hybrids and fully-electric vehicles in the British car market.
When comparing last year to 2010, annual registrations for alternative fuel vehicles in Britain has increased by over 14,500 units.
