Cars are king in Britain, with car ownership increasing steadily and up to half of the population owning a car.
The latest figures show the number of cars registered in Britain rose by more than 1 million between January and April, but the increase was not enough to match the rise in population.
In the UK, there were 2.2 million cars registered as of the end of April, a 2.1 per cent increase on the same period last year, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA).
The latest NADA figures show that while the number in Britain grew by 3 per cent in the first quarter of 2017, the overall increase was less than 1 per cent, with a smaller percentage of vehicles registered than last year.
The figures also show that sales of new cars rose by almost 6 per cent to 1.3 million, a 7.2 per cent rise compared with the same quarter last year and a 12.4 per cent growth compared with March 2017.
But in contrast, sales of used cars rose less than half that, by less than 4 per cent.
The increase in the number and size of vehicles is mainly due to the UK’s relatively slow economy.
This is because car ownership is becoming more widespread in Britain as the population ages, particularly among women, and car ownership has become more popular among young people in recent years.
However, the car market has also been hit by recent changes to the way that cars are built and sold.
Cars in Britain now need to be sold in factory-built engines, which are much more expensive and often less reliable than the more common petrol-electric hybrid systems.
The new rules, which were implemented in January 2017, require all new vehicles sold after the end on the 31st March 2018 to have a combustion engine and be manufactured in the UK.
These rules were introduced as part of a wider overhaul of the British auto industry, which includes the introduction of fuel efficiency and emissions standards and the introduction in March 2017 of new fuel-saving features.
The UK’s car market also is in the midst of a new phase of change.
The British car market is undergoing a transformation, driven by the UK Government’s ambitious car-making strategy.
A new generation of hybrid and electric cars are hitting the market, with many of these cars being produced by UK-based companies.
However the Government is now seeking to create an “innovation economy” in the car industry by encouraging more local firms to enter the market.
The Government has also introduced a range of incentives for firms to invest in new technology, including introducing incentives for new car manufacturers to create new technologies and to build new factories.
However some manufacturers, particularly those making hybrids, have been criticised for not being able to compete with cheaper rivals from overseas.
In recent years, there has been an explosion in new cars being sold in Britain.
In January 2017 there were more than 20,000 new cars sold in the country, an increase of almost 10 per cent on the previous year.
A total of 2.9 million new vehicles were registered, an 8 per cent jump on the first three months of 2017.
In comparison, the UK had just 1,068,500 vehicles in May 2018, a drop of 3 per to 2,826,500.
Overall, new car sales in Britain increased by about 3 per per cent year-on-year in the six months to April, which is slightly higher than the rate seen over the same six months in 2017.
However this increase in new car purchases is less than the 10 per to 12 per cent annual increase in overall vehicle sales, which was up by 4 per to 9 per cent over the previous six months.
New car sales have been buoyed by a growing number of low-cost options.
While a large proportion of new car buyers in the United Kingdom are buying a Nissan Leaf, the average price of a car with a four-cylinder engine is now about £1.3m, according the NADA.
In contrast, the price of an electric car is just £1m, with most new electric cars costing £10,000 to £20,000.
As the UK prepares for the start of the summer, the government is seeking to increase the number or types of new vehicles that are sold to meet the demand.
This includes introducing incentives and introducing an additional subsidy for some new car models.