Zapmap tracks UK new registratons of electric cars - both battery electric (BEV) and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) on a monthly basis. This data is then charted to show the cumulative number of electric cars on the road, % of the car parc and market share.
How many electric cars are there in the UK?
As of the end of October 2024, there are just under 1,300,000 fully electric cars in the UK. This means that around 3.83% of the c.34 million cars on UK roads are fully electric.
The graph below shows the growth in the number of electric cars in the UK between 2020 and 2024. At the end of 2020, there were 205,770 electric cars, which represented 0.6% of all cars on the road and since then the number of electric cars has increased more than five-fold.
What is the electric car market share of new cars?
In 2024 to date, there has been 299,733 new fully electric cars sold, which is 18.1% market share of all new cars registered this year.
In 2023, the last full year, there were 314,684 electric cars sold, as compared to 267,203 in 2022; a growth of 18%. The proportion of new cars that are electric has grown from 6.6% in 2020, to 18.1% in 2024.
In the last few years the electric car proportion of new car sales has stayed stable, but this is expected to change as the impact of the ZEV mandate, and growing consumer demand comes into affect. In parallel the number of new diesel cars sold has fallen significantly.
How many electric cars are sold each month?
In October 2024, 29,802 new electric cars were sold, which was 20.7% of all new car registrations. Over the past 12 months the average number of new electric cars registered each month is over 29,000.
As detailed on the chart below, the proportion of new electric cars has varied between 15% and 20% over this period, although in recent months it has consistently been over 20%. In the UK, March and September are new registration plate months, which accounts for peak figures, and historically, a drop in market share in these periods.
How many plug-in cars are there in the UK?
As of the end of October 2024, there were 2,028,907 plug-in cars, with around 1,300,000 battery-electric cars and over 720,000 PHEVs, registered in the UK.
Both fully electric cars and plug-in hybrids have shown substantive growth in sales over the last four years, with the overall number of cars growing from 439,568 and 1.3% of all cars in 2020 to 2,028,907 and 5.9% of all cars in 2024.
There are more fully electric cars than there are plug-in hybrids on UK roads and the gap has been widening. In 2020, fully electric cars accounted for 47% of all plug-in cars but with the increase in options, range and popularity of fully electric cars, and by October 2024 this has increased to 64%.
What proportion of cars sold each month are plug-in hybrid or electric?
The proportion of all new cars sold in October 2024 that were either fully electric or plug-in hybrid is 30.3%, the highest percentage since December 2022. In October 2024 a total of 43,634 new cars with a plug were registered in the UK - 29,802 were fully electric and 13,832 were plug-in hybrids.
Electric car sales: How has the electric car market share grown over time?
At the end of 2020 just 6.6% of all new vehicles registered were electric. Now towards the end of 2024 this has risen to 18.1% of new car registrations. A further 8.4% of all new cars registered were plug-in hybrids, making the current market share for new cars registered with a plug in 2024 26.5%.
These numbers reflect both the increase in demand for electric vehicles and the decline in demand for traditional, particularly diesel, cars.
How many used electric cars are sold each month?
In Q3 2024, according to the SMMT, over 53,000 used battery electric were cars sold, which was 2.7% of all used car sales and represented a 57% increase.
How many electric vans are there in the UK?
As of the end of September 2024, there were over 65,000 electric vans in the UK. This represents around 1.4% of all LCVs on the road in the UK.
Whilst the van market is not growing as strongly as the car market, the graph below shows how the market has developed. At the end of 2020, there were 5,266 electric vans, just 0.12% of all cars on the road and since then the number of electric vans has grown ten-fold to 67,966 and 1.4% of all LCVs.
What is the electric van market share of the new van sales market?
Since the beginning of 2024, 13,436 electric vans have been sold in the UK, 4.8% of all new van sales.
In 2023 there was the biggest annual increase in the number of electric van registrations, with over 20,000 electric vans registered, showing a growth of 21% on 2022.
The number of electric vans as a proportion of all new vans increased from 1.8% in 2020 to 5.9% in 2022 where it remained for 2023.
How many new electric vans are registered each month?
In September 2024, there were 2,342 electric vans registered, 4.8% of all new van sales. Over the past 12 months the average number of new electric vans registered is around 1,800.
As detailed on the chart below, the proportion of new electric vans has varied between 3.6% and 10% over this period. The peak months for electric van sales was December 2023 with 2964 registrations.
Other data that Zapmap makes available in the public domain, and updates on a regular basis includes tracking EV charging infrastructure profile and growth, Zapmap Price Index or best networks for EV charging.
If you are interested in more detailed data and insights on the EV charging market for your business, we have much more available, find out more or get in touch with the Zapmap Insights team.
Please note that third parties can use this data provided the source is clearly attributed to Zapmap, any graphs include the Zapmap logo, and a link is added back to https://www.zap-map.com in the body of the article. The data must be strictly copied and updated manually, no automated data collection can be applied in any form. The data can only published in its original state and without any modifications.
