UK car registrations were 11.2% lower in November than in November 2016.

In contrast, car registrations across Europe increased by 5.2% in the same period.

Overall, the European market is up 3.8% year-on-year for new car registrations; however, the UK is 5% down.

France, Spain and Germany, along with mid-sized markets including the Netherlands and Austria, experienced the biggest increases in volume for the month of November, offsetting the decline in the UK market.

Total registrations across Europe to date reached 14.43 million units. The growth driven by the ever-increasing demand for SUVs. Registrations in the SUV segment grew by 21.6% to almost 400,000 units.

SUVs now make up 31.9% of the market.

“It is clear that manufacturers will increasingly see the SUV segment as a means of growth in a tough market, and as a consequence, SUVs will take market share away from more traditional segments.

“Already we have seen the effects of this on MPVs, which recorded a market share of just 7% in November 2017. This has been caused by the discontinuation of vehicles such as the Vauxhall Meriva and Nissan Note, which couldn't compete with their B-SUV counterparts," said Felipe Munoz, global automotive analyst at JATO Dynamics.

Volkswagen Group retained the largest market share in 2017, with 1.5 million registrations to date (24.5%). Renault was second with just over 1 million while Ford recorded 977,000, placing it third.

The best-selling car was the Volkswagen Golf. Achieving registrations of 445,206 units to date.