How many electric vehicles in the UK

EV market stats 2024

Tracking the growth in EV sales in the UK over time
By
Jade Edwards
Updated
06/03/2024

With increasing consumer demand and the greater availability of electric models, the number of electric cars in the UK is growing at a rapid rate. As of the end of February 2024, there are now over 1,000,000 fully electric cars on UK roads and a further 620,000 plug-in hybrids.

On this electric vehicle (EV) market stats page, Zapmap tracks the cumulative number of electric vehicles on UK roads, the growth in electric vehicle sales, and the proportion of new car sales that have a plug – either battery-electric vehicles or plug-in hybrids. The number of electric vans being sold each month are also tracked.

 

How many electric cars are there in the UK?

As of the end of February 2024, there are over 1,000,000 fully electric cars on UK roads. The chart below shows growth of electric car registrations from 2019 to the present day.

Nearly 315,000 battery-electric cars were registered in 2023, a growth of 18% on the number registered in 2022.

 

Cumulative number of battery-electric cars in the UK (2019 to date)

 

Source: SMMT, February 2024

 

What proportion of cars sold each month are electric?

In February 2024, 17.7% of all new car registrations were electric cars, with 14,991 new electric cars registered.

Note that, in the UK, March and September are new registration plate months, which accounts for the twice-yearly peaks in electric car sales and, historically, a drop in market share in these periods.

 

Number of new battery-electric cars and market share, monthly

 

Source: SMMT, February 2024

 

How many plug-in cars are there in the UK?

As of the end of February 2024, there were around 1,650,000 plug-in cars, with over 1,000,000 battery-electric cars and 620,000 PHEVs registered.

In 2023, more than 452,000 plug-in hybrid and battery-electric cars were registered, showing a growth of 41% on 2022. There was also a significant shift away from plug-in hybrids towards battery-electric cars, with plug-in hybrid sales declining year on year, while battery-electric vehicle sales have increased.

 

Cumulative number of plug-in cars registered in the UK (2019 to date)

 

Source: SMMT, February 2024

 

What proportion of cars sold each month are plug-in hybrid or electric?

The proportion of all new cars sold in February 2024 that were either fully electric or plug-in hybrid is 23.7%. In February 2024 a total of 21,089 new cars with a plug were registered in the UK.

 

Number of new plug-in cars and market share, monthly

 

Source: SMMT, February 2024

 

 

Electric car sales: How has the electric car market share grown over time?

At the end of 2016, just 0.4% of all new vehicles registered were electric. By 2023 this had risen to 16.5% of new car registrations. A further 7.4% of all new cars registered were plug-in hybrids, making the total market share for new cars registered with a plug in 2023 23.9%. These numbers reflect both the increase in demand for electric vehicles and the decline in demand for traditional, particularly diesel, cars.

 

Since 2019, the gap between the percentage of PHEV sales and BEV sales has widened, as BEVs continue to grow in popularity. In 2024, we only expect to see this trend accelerate as BEVs appeal to an increasing number of drivers.

 

Annual market share – plug-in market share of new car registrations (2019 to date)

 

Source: SMMT, February 2024

 

How many electric vans are there in the UK?

As of the end of February 2024, there were more than 57,000 electric vans in the UK.

Last year, the number of electric vans sold in the UK picked up significantly. One factor here is increased demand, but the upwards trend is also thanks to a large number of new models coming to market, seeing what was once a very small choice of models expand dramatically.

Find out more in our Guide to Electric Vans, or see the charts below to see the profile of new registrations of battery-electric vans in the UK since 2020.

 

Cumulative number of battery-electric vans registered in the UK (2020 to date)

 

Source: SMMT, February 2024

 

Last year saw 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.

 

How many new electric vans are registered each month?

 

Electric van registrations continue to rise in absolute numbers, with 847 new registrations in February 2024. The chart below shows the number of registrations of battery-electric vans each month from 2022 to 2024 year to date.

 

Number of new battery-electric van registrations by month

 

Source: SMMT, February 2024

 

How has the market share of electric vans grown over time?

 

The number of electric vans as a proportion of all new vans increased from 3.6% in 2021 to 5.9% in 2023. We only expect this percentage to increase throughout 2024 as an increasing range of electric vans come to market.

 

Annual market share – battery-electric market share of new van registrations (2020 to date)

 

Source: SMMT, February 2024

 

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.