The electric car market has once again significantly outperformed the UK new car market as a whole, with growth of 260% for pure-EVs in July 2020 and 320% for PHEVs, compared to the same period last year.
The latest set of Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders published today (Wednesday 5th August), shows continued success for electric cars. It’s a trend that has been seen practically all year, with most months having triple digit growth in the pure-electric market.
July’s figures see pure-EVs make up 4.7% of all new cars sold in July 2020, with a total of 8,162 units registered. Plug-in Hybrid figures are similar, with 7,447 units, and market share of 4.3%. Combined plug-in vehicle registrations come in at 15,609 registrations – a market share of 8.9%.
As of the end of July, more than 330,800 electric cars have been sold, 66,000 of which have come in 2020. This year’s figures are only 9% behind the total for the entire 12 months of 2019, with five months in 2020 still remaining.
Considering lockdown saw the ability to go and buy a new car made extremely difficult for a few months, the performance of the electric vehicle market is far outstripping what was expected of it, up 112% on the first seven months of 2019.
Total market share for 2020 to date for electric vehicles is 8% – of which 4.7% is made up of pure-EVs. Average figures for 2020 see almost 5,600 pure-EVs and more than 3,800 PHEVs sold each month, with a total just shy of 9,500 registrations and a combined market share of 8% – pure-EVs making up 4.7% market share.
Again, those figures would be greater without only 1,500 registrations in April 2020, and only a little over 3,000 in May, because of lockdown.
For pure-electric models in particular, the figures for 2020 make some reading. Since the turn of the year, the pre-2020 EV monthly sales record has been broken three times. Sales have reached five-figures three times in 2020, an event that only happened once prior to January, and typical combined EV-PHEV market share has risen from around 4% each month to closer to 10%.
All of the above is simply comparing the electric vehicle market to itself last year – where there was no coronavirus, and looking only at pure-electric and PHEV models. Put into context with the wider new UK car market, and the performance is even more remarkable.
The UK’s new car market as a whole grew 11% in July, but is down 42% year to date. Diesel registrations are down 61% in 2020, petrol are down 47%, and even conventional hybrids are down 8%. Mild hybrids – effectively petrol and diesel models with beefed-up starter motors – have shown significant growth, but few were available this time last year.
In contrast, the pure-electric new car market is up 175% year-to-date compared with the same period in 2019, and the PHEV market is up 59%. Market share for 2020 has increased from 1% for pure-EVs in 2019 to 4.7% in 2020 YTD, and PHEVs have risen from 1.2% to 3.3%.
