EVs break the million mark

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders has announced that the one millionth electric car was sold in the UK in January.

The new car market grew 8.2% last month, with 142,876 new cars registered. This represents an increase of 10,882 units compared to the same month last year.

The 18^th consecutive month of growth was driven entirely by the fleet market, which rose by 29.9%, while private retail uptake fell 15.8%.

Meanwhile, the market also reached its anticipated milestone of a million BEV registrations with some 20,935 BEVs registered in January, a rise of 21% year on year. This means there are now 1,001,677 EVs on UK roads.

The BEV market share for January also grew year on year to 14.7%, although this is below the full 2023 performance of 16.5%. Plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) recorded volume growth of 31.1% to take 8.4% of the market, while hybrid (HEV) volumes fell 1.2% with a 13.1% share.

Mike Hawes, SMMT Chief Executive, said, “It’s taken just over 20 years to reach our million EV milestone – but with the right policies, we can double down on that success in just another two. Market growth is currently dependent on businesses and fleets. Government must therefore use the upcoming Budget to support private EV buyers, temporarily halving VAT to cut carbon, drive economic growth and help everyone make the switch. Manufacturers have been asked to supply the vehicles, we now ask government to help consumers buy the vehicles on which net zero depends.”