Budget Ford is crowned UK’s best-selling car for THIRD year in a row – and not a single EV made the top 10 – The Sun
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Ford Puma crowned UK best-seller for third year as Tesla Model Y leads EVs
BRITS clearly love the Ford Puma, as the Blue Oval’s compact SUV has retained its crown as the nation’s best-selling new car for the third year running.
According to new stats from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), 55,488 Pumas were registered in 2025 – putting it comfortably ahead of its totals in 2023 and 2024 at 49,591 and 48,340 respectively.
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Behind the Puma, which can be yours for as little as £25,500, the Kia Sportage took second place again with 47,788 regs, followed by the Nissan Qashqai on 41,141.
Completing the overall top five were the Vauxhall Corsa – which has made quite the comeback having failed to make the top 10 best-sellers list in 2024 – and the Nissan Juke.
The remainder of the top ten comprised the evergreen Volkswagen Golf, the beefy Volvo XC40, MG HS, Volkswagen Tiguan and Hyundai Tucson.
December’s figures mirrored the wider trend, with the Puma leading the month on 4,680 registrations, ahead of the Tesla Model Y, Volvo XC40 and MG ZS.
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In the electric market, premium models dominated with the Tesla Model Y remaining the UK’s best-selling EV with 24,298 registrations – although this was well down on the 32,862 achieved in the previous year.
It was followed by the Tesla Model 3 with 21,188, then Audi’s Q4 e-tron on 14,433 and Q6 e-tron on 13,148.
The rest of the EV top ten featured the Ford Explorer, BMW i4, Skoda Enyaq, Kia EV3, Skoda Elroq and Volvo EX30.
The SMMT also reported that UK new car registrations surpassed two million in 2025 for the first time this decade.
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They also warned that current levels of discounting to stimulate EV sales are unsustainable.
The trade body’s CEO, Mike Hawes, said: “The new car market finally reaching two million registrations for the first time this decade is a reasonably solid result amid tough economic and geopolitical headwinds.
“Rising EV uptake is an undoubted positive, but the pace is still too slow and the cost to industry too high.
“Government has stepped in with the Electric Car Grant, but a new EV tax, additional charges for EV drivers in London and costly public charging send mixed signals.”
In a message sent to Sun Motors, Steve Walker, Head of Digital Content at Auto Express said: “For a year largely characterised by turmoil and uncertainty for the car industry, 2025’s car registrations held up remarkably well.
“Over 2 million cars were registered in the UK, the kind of numbers we haven’t seen since the COVID pandemic.
“Roughly six out of every ten cars registered went to fleets but private buyers still snapped up nearly 800k cars, a 4.5% improvement on 2024.
“Petrol remains the UK’s favourite fuel, the Ford Puma its favourite car and Volkswagen its favourite brand but change is coming.
“Electric cars were over 23 per cent of the UK market with growth of just under 24% compared to 2024.
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“While the transition to EVs isn’t quite happening at the pace some predicted, it is baked-in to manufacturer product plans while the influx of new models and brands from China is creating fierce competition that will continue to force prices down.
“2026 could be the year that the great deals available on new EVs get too good for buyers to resist.”
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