Volkswagen Polo was the UK’s sixth most popular car in June 2021
Following its return to the UK’s most popular cars chart in May 2021, the Volkswagen Polo solidified its major player status in June, according to figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). With 3,752 Polos registered, the small VW was in sixth place, ahead of other superminis such as the Toyota Yaris and the Mini hatch. In terms of the top 10 most popular cars chart for the year-to-date figures, the Polo is up two places from May, and now sits in eighth place with 15,554 registrations.
The Vauxhall Corsa continued its slide from the top spot and was placed fourth in June, with 4,375 registrations. The top placed supermini, the Vauxhall was one spot ahead of the Ford Fiesta (3,811 registrations) while May’s chart-topping car, the VW Golf, had to settle for second position in June ahead of the Ford Puma. The number one most popular car in the UK for June 2021 was the all-electric Tesla Model 3.
Superminis most popular
The SMMT reports that 186,128 new cars were registered in June, which is 28 per cent up from the same month in 2020 when retailers opened after the pandemic. The figure is down 16.4 per cent on the 10-year June average and down 26.8 per cent year-to-date, thanks in part to the global shortage of semiconductor chips. Once again, superminis – cars like the Polo – remained the UK’s most popular car choice, with a 34.1 per cent share.
The UK’s top ten most popular new cars during June 2021 and the year-to-date (registration figure and position in brackets) were as follows:
1 Tesla Model 3: 5,468
2 Volkswagen Golf: 4,629 (19,608, 3rd)
3 Ford Puma: 4,477 (18,232, 5th)
4 Vauxhall Corsa: 4,375 (24,399, 1st)
5 Ford Fiesta: 3,811 (21,511, 2nd)
6 Volkswagen Polo: 3,752 (15,554, 8th)
7 Toyota Yaris: 3,456 (15,124, 10th)
8 Mini: 3,506
9 BMW 3 Series: 3,048 (15,402, 9th)
10 Kia Sportage: 2,957 (16,310, 7th)
(The 2021 year-to-date top ten most popular cars absent from June’s registration figures were the fourth-placed Mercedes-Benz A-Class and the sixth-placed Nissan Qashqai with 19,498, and 16,842 units recorded respectively.)
Polo Vivo tops South African charts
In figures released by Volkswagen South Africa, the Polo Vivo remains the new car registrations champion in South Africa, with 11,560 cars finding homes in the first six months of 2021. The sixth-generation Polo was in runner-up position, with 9,045 examples produced and exported by Volkswagen South Africa’s Kariega (formerly Uitenhage) factory. The company also registered over 32,600 vehicles in the first half of 2021, with the 3,893 Polo-based T-Cross compact SUVs registered, more than half of the company’s SUV registrations. Notable VW launches over the coming months include the arrival of the Golf 8 GTI in South Africa.
