Strong demand from both private and fleet sectors contributed to a 12.7% year-on-year sales rise during July, and as a result the SMMT has revised its 2013 total sales forecast to 2.216m units – 8.4% higher than 2012.

Alternatively-fuelled vehicles, including hybrids and plug-ins, were up 17% year on year in the same month, while year-to-date figures are up 6.9% against a market total of 10.3%.

The SMMT said tax breaks, increased availability of products and wider interest from consumers was driving plug-in sales higher still. To date, electric and plug-in hybrids have reached 80% of 2012’s total sales volume, and an 11-fold increase on 2010’s total sales, reaching a total of 1,855 units.

Mike Baunton, SMMT interim chief executive, said: ‘Recently, we've seen a range of economic indicators point to improving conditions and our raised sales forecast emphasises how positively we view the rest of 2013.’