The latest registration data from SMMT shows another record month for electric vehicles in the UK!
While the overall UK car market is struggling this year, and new car registrations are on the decline, EV sales keep growing. Over 9,000 new electric vehicles were registered in November, accounting for 5.8% of all vehicles sales (more than 1 in 20 vehicles!). This is up from only 4.4% last month, and the first time that they’ve breached 5%.
Once again this month, pure electric vehicles registrations accounted for more than 50% of all EV registrations, confirming that the trend has definitely been reversed and that plug-in hybrid vehicles are on the decline.
Nearly 65,000 new EV registrations have been recorded for 2019 so far. This is already higher than the whole of 2018. If the growth keeps up, close to 75,000 new electric vehicles can be expected by the end of the year, a 20% increase from 2018. This is very encouraging, particularly considering that the cut of subsidies for plug-in hybrids affected new registrations at the beginning of the year.
A milestone of 10,000 charging locations was reached beginning of November in the UK. However, with more than 1 million EVs expected on the road over the next few years and an EV market showing an increasing share of pure electrics, this is not enough, and the need for a dense and efficient charging network is becoming more and more pressing. Landlords and local authorities have a key role to play in that regard, and must keep up their efforts to ensure the adequate infrastructure is put into place to drive the EV transition.
