UK January new car sales rise to best in six years, industry data shows

Adds details on EV sales in paragraph 2, Tesla sales in paragraph 3, comment in 4, outlook in 5, context throughout

Feb 5 (Reuters) - British new car sales rose 3.4% in January from a year earlier to their highest level in six years, data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders showed, pointing to stabilising demand as private purchases picked up and buyers shifted to greener models.

New car registrations rose to 144,127 units for the month, data on Thursday showed.

Electric vehicle sales were up only 0.1%, slowing down from a strong season towards the end of 2025, when automakers were pushing to meet regulatory targets.

Tesla TSLA.O sales in the UK halved to 718 units in January and were trailing Chinese rival BYD's 002594.SZ sales which were up two and a half fold to 4,021 units, SMMT data showed, echoing numbers released by New Automotive on Wednesday.

"Britain's new car market is building back momentum after a challenging start to the decade. It is also decarbonising more rapidly than ever and, despite a January dip in EV market share, the signs point to growth by the end of the year," SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes said.

The industry body raised its annual forecast for UK car sales to 2.048 million units, from its previous expectation of 2.032 million units.

(Reporting by Prerna Bedi in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)

((Prerna.Bedi@thomsonreuters.com; +91 98052 24616;))