Highest ever EV market share -Year Review & December 2022
Welcome to a bumper edition of Electric Car Count. In this special release we review the whole of 2022, as well as new car registration figures for December 2022.
🗓️ December 2022
Once again, December was a very strong month for new electric car sales, recording their highest ever market share. One in three new cars were electric, making them the second most popular type of car sold in December. For the first time since at least 2010, petrol’s share of the market fell below 40% - a significant milestone in the decline of fossil fueled cars and the transition to electric.
⚡ What Our Data Shows
Ben Nelmes, Chief Executive Officer at New AutoMotive, said:
“December’s figures are seriously impressive. This is the result of years of government support through consumer and fiscal incentives, as well as a clear long-term ambition to end sales of fossil fuelled cars by 2035.”
“As the government winds up grants and incentives for electric cars, it needs to be careful that these impressive numbers are not just a flash in the pan. Electric car registrations can go down as well as up. Ministers should enshrine their 2035 ambition in law by introducing a California-style Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) mandate, which provides the market with clarity about the UK’s journey to cleaner road transport.”
“Delays to the UK’s plans to introduce a zero emissions vehicle mandate risk undermining the case for investment in gigafactories and charging infrastructure. A strong ZEV mandate will bring forward running cost savings for consumers that dwarf debates about fuel duty rates. Consumers have shown that they are ready to pass on petrol and embrace electric; now is the time for the government to show that it is on their side by setting ambitious targets that enable more people to access the benefits of going electric.”
The full data release is available here. You can view the data on our interactive dashboard, here.
📈 UK market overview
Significantly, December was the first month ever that petrol cars recorded a market share of under 40% - new petrol sales made up just 37% of the market in December, and petrol’s loss of market share was electric gain. Pure electric cars jumped into the number 2 spot in the list of most popular fuel types, in a repeat of December 2021, with one in three new car registrations in December for an electric vehicle. New Diesel sales were again negligible, continuing a long-term trend, whilst hybrids claimed a steady but unspectacular market share of 23% - typical of the fuel types performance over 2022, as demand for hybrids has stagnated.
📌 Regional highlights
Based on a three-month rolling average, the following areas are EV hotspots this month, with EVs taking the following shares of new car sales:
Oxfordshire - 53%
Anglia - 39%
London - 31%
Manchester & Merseyside - 28%
North-East - 28%
West of England - 26%
Refer to tables 4 & 5 for full regional statistics.
🚗 The race for EV market share
Tesla always dominates this table in months where they make deliveries, and demand for the marque remains very strong, despite recent controversies and the dip in the company's share price. Tesla experienced their highest ever market share in a single month in December, being responsible for just under 40% of all new electric car sales in the UK, and this sizable market share was more than the next six marques combined.
For the full data, and year-on-year comparisons, refer to table 1 in the full release.
📊 The brands who are quickest to electrify
Once again, it is the usual cohort of niche marques that dominate this table. Of the top three, MG’s figures are most significant; a sizable monthly sales volume of 2163 electric cars meant that 88% of all the marques sales in December were electric.
For the full data, refer to table 2 in the full release.
⚡ 2022 in review
2022 was a challenging and tumultuous year in the UK, with the country dealing with a generational cost-of-living crisis, growing inflation, and weakening consumer purchasing power. These factors hit the new car market, and saw it contract by around 3% compared to 2021. However, even as the new car market shrunk overall, the take-up of electric cars (EVs) continued to grow; 250,407 battery electric cars (BEVs) were registered in 2022, compared to 181,062 in 2021, and electric cars were once again the fastest growing segment of the market.
📈 UK market overview: 2022
2022 was a tough year for the British economy; the rising cost of borrowing pushed up car finance costs, a generational cost-of-living crisis, and high inflation weakened consumer confidence and led to many Britons tightening their belts and spending less. This trend hit the new car market, which shrank by 3% in 2022 compared to 2021. However, even as the UK car market contracted overall, demand for BEVs remained strong, with fossil fueled car sales taking most of the blow of these contractions, demonstrating the strength of organic consumer demand for BEVs. Our chart below shows the market share of the different passenger car fuel types on a 3 month rolling average.
Diesel's share of the new car market continued to shrink, compounding a trend which began in 2017, whilst hybrids share of the market stagnated at around 25% in 2022 - a sign that demand for transitory hybrid technology has potentially peaked, as drivers increasingly recognise the superiority of fully electric vehicles. Petrol’s share of the market fell over the course of 2022, eroded by EV sales; the dips and troughs in petrols share of new registrations over 2022, seen in the graph above, are counterpoised by surges in EVs share of the market. We expect this trend to continue in 2023 - petrol’s market share will continue to fall steadily, with electric claiming the market share it loses.
📌 Regional breakdown
Regional figures for EV take-up in 2022 highlight the pivotal role local government has to play in the UK’s transition to electric vehicles. The below list of top ten local authorities for BEV registrations is dominated by local authorities that have proactively supported the transition in their local area, making their jurisdiction a place where it is easy to charge and drive an EV. The list also highlights another, more worrying trend; a regional imbalance in the take-up of electric cars. Every authority in the top ten of this list in England, with Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland not having a single representative between them. If the transition to electric is to be truly equitable, and delivered to the benefit of all Briton’s, the government must seek to address this imbalance in 2023.
📊 Car manufacturers in transition: leaders and laggards of 2022
More and more electric models hit the UK market in 2022, as incumbent manufacturers continue to try and establish themselves in this rapidly growing market segment. Manufacturers who currently produce ICE vehicles must transition away from producing internal combustion engine vehicles and they must do so quickly if they want to retain their dominance of the market, as 2023 is likely to see a growth in new, more affordable electric models from Chinese marques hit the UK market. Our Electric Car Count usually covers the brands that are quickest to electrify; however, in our 2022 review of the year we’re also looking at the parent company. We’ve ranked the car companies with a major presence in the UK market (excluding those with 100% electric car sales, like Tesla).
The fastest three
The companies who saw the most progress towards all-electric sales in 2022, compared to 2021, were Geely, BMW and Subaru. Each saw significant increases in the percentage of their car sales that were fully electric. BMW in particular has worked hard to position itself as one of the incumbent manufacturers best poised to take advantage of the growing demand for electric vehicles.
The slowest three
The companies transitioning to all-electric sales the slowest in 2022, compared to 2021, were Honda, SAIC Motors (which includes Audi, Volkswagen, and Skoda), and Mazda. Although a significant share of SAIC Motors’ sales are fully electric, they are failing to increase that share, which is why they feature in our bottom three. Mazda and Honda have failed to make any progress in electrifying their UK sales since 2019.
The biggest three
The biggest car companies by volume, compared to 2021, are Volkswagen Group, Stellantis, and BMW Group. Each has seen significant growth in EV sales as a percentage of their new car sales, and both Stellantis and Volkswagen Group feature on this list for the second year in a row - a positive sign that the two market leading manufacturers in the UK are taking the transition seriously, and seeking to maximise the economic opportunities it offers.
About Electric Car Count
Electric Car Count is a monthly data series from New AutoMotive, a not-for-profit independent transport research organisation with a mission to accelerate and support the UK’s transition to electric vehicles. You can find out more about New AutoMotive by visiting www.newautomotive.org/mission
Electric Car Count provides an overview of the newly licensed passenger cars. It is released monthly, in the first few days of each month, providing data on the previous month’s newly licensed cars. In the UK, vehicles must be licensed (also known as registered) to be legally driven on UK roads.
We provide an overview of the state of the market, showing the number of cars registered by each manufacturer, broken down by fuel type. This provides a new way to track the transition to EVs in the UK.
Visit our interactive data dashboard here: www.newautomotive.org/ecc
For more background information on the statistics we provide, you can read our blog about the race for EV market share: www.newautomotive.org/blog/the-race-for-ev-market-share-is-under-way
Data sources & methodology
The data is shows the number of type M1 vehicles (i.e. passenger cars) in the DVLA’s vehicle licensing database as it stands on, or shortly after, the 1st day of the month. The DVLA’s vehicle licensing database is the legal record of all vehicles licensed for use in the UK. We obtain the data from the DVLA’s vehicle enquiry service API, and the DVSA’s MOT history API.
The data covers all cars with a standard form UK vehicle registration mark (VRM, i.e. the vehicle’s number plate), but does not capture any vehicles with personalised VRMs.
Terminology
We use the following terms to refer to vehicle fuel types:
Pure electric: battery electric, or other purely electric-powered vehicles (such as hydrogen). These are vehicles where the drivetrain of the vehicle is only electric, with no facility to drive using a fossil fuelled engine.
Hybrid: vehicles that have the ability to drive under electric power or under fossil fuel power. These include vehicles classified by the DVLA as “hybrid electric”, “electric diesel”, for example.
Q&A
Why are the numbers different from other organisations, such as the SMMT?
Our numbers are typically slightly different from those published by the SMMT. We cannot speculate as to why this is because the SMMT do not publish the methodology for obtaining their vehicle data.
Our data is based on the DVLA’s legal record of vehicles licensed as it stands on the first of the month.
Our methodology does not capture newly registered vehicles with a personalised number plate. These take longer to appear in our database, and are not included in the monthly release. We do not believe that these are a statistically significant part of the market.
Will you make this data open and accessible to more organisations?
Yes, we are happy to supply the data to anyone where doing so will not conflict with our mission. We encourage people to reach out to us on data@newautomotive.org.