mike hawes is the ceo of the society of motor manufacturers and traders. which cost between half a three quarters of a million new car registrations and we just didn't get them back when showroom opened, that was by far the biggest impact on the numbers. but undoubtedly, the evasive nature of the pandemic did undermine consumer confidence, business confidence, and added to that, brexit uncertainty. it was a challenging, challenging year, and we just hope 2021 is a lot better. yet record figures, i believe, for the purchase, or near record figures for the purchase of electric vehicles which we didn't mention an introduction. is this a sign of things to come and, if so, is the sector ready to meet those 2030 targets? absolutely, that was one bright spot in an otherwise gloomy picture. electric sales were up, something like 180%. about one in ten cars sold now can be plugged in and that means pure electric or a plug—in hybrid which combines a combustion engine. this is the future of the industry and the way it is going. manufacturers have invested billions int

the society of motor manufacturers and traders expect a slight upturn this year. production levels is unlikely in the foreseeable future. two americans accused of helping the former nissan chairman escape from tokyo failed in their attempt to avoid facing charges in japan. michael taylor and his son ask for more time to challenge extradition from the u.s., but the judge rejected their argument saying they would be denied legal rights in japan. they still have a chance to appeal the latest ruling. global news 24 hours a day on air and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i'm karina mitchell. this is bloomberg. haidi: still ahead, we will be speaking to the robinhood ceo amid the retail trading frenzy. plus hung lung properties chairman ronnie chan joins us to talk about the companies latest result and the outlook for the property sector. much more to come. this is bloomberg. shery: hang lung properties reporting a loss of 4.5 million hong kong dollars compared to a profit of almost 7 billion the year

society for motor manufacturers and traders said. about 1.63 million new cars were registered in 2020, compared with 2.3 million the year before — that's a decline of at the smmt. mr, nobody is surprised to hear this. we would expect that new car sales would be down in 2020 —— emma. car sales would be down in 2020 -- emma. absolutely, there was never any doubt that it would be an incredibly tough year for the automotive industry, just like many other sectors. it has been an incredibly tough year. we were shut down, large scale for three months of the year, in the beginning of the year, and successive lockdowns since have made it incredibly difficult to deliver the revenue we normally would, some incredibly hard year. i think something of last year, but we have some hope, we're looking forward now to 2021, clearly the next couple of months be tough as well, so we are obviously very reliant on support from the government, on the furlough scheme which has provided a huge lifeline to the sector. it's great. we can continue our manufacturing, the and as the year progressed in 2020, the sector was able to get more into click and collect and get much bett