New car registrations are expected to dip by 10 per cent year-on-year in the first half of 2022, but are predicted to recover in the second half, according to Cox Automotive's latest forecasts.

Cox Automotive's has revised down its projections for the UK's new car market in the latest edition of its Autofocus publication.

Insight and strategy director Philip Nothard said: "It is looking increasingly likely that the pre-pandemic automotive market we all knew may never return."

The automotive remarketing and services provider said that downgrades would have been expected even without the impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with global vehicle production expected to be down by 31 million this year.

And as a result, it's revised forecasts predict that Q2 2022 will end on 436,286 registrations, a reduction of 9.9 per cent year-on-year, while Q3 2022 is now predicted to end on 483,433 registrations - a 22 per cent rise.

Full year registrations are expected to end on 1.65 million registrations, a 0.2 per cent increase year-on-ear, but a 13.8 per cent downgrade on previous forecasts.

Mr Nothard added: "Whether it is a growing number of manufacturers switching to the agency model or ongoing supply chain disruption, the UK's automotive sector looks set for short to medium-term volatility and may well emerge from this looking completely different to pre-pandemic levels.

"Supply headaches also persist from the long-awaited fulfilment of orders made 12 or even 18 months ago. However, there are also reports of this year's order books already being full, so it's clear the backlog of orders will only grow, and new orders won't turn into actual registrations until at least H2 2022 or even into 2023."