19% of all new cars were fully electric
Electric cars had their best ever month outside of a lockdown in November 2021, according to the latest data from Electric Car Count. 19% of all new cars in the UK in November were fully electric - almost 1 in five of all new cars. Electric cars continued to be the fastest growing segment of the market, amid declining petrol sales.
Ben Nelmes, Head of Policy and Research at New AutoMotive, said:
“It is fantastic to see another 20,000 people discovering the benefits of electric cars: a better driving experience, cheaper running costs and the peace of mind that you’re doing your bit for the environment. Electric cars sales continue to boom in the UK, and November marks the second best month on record for sales of fully electric cars.
“The rapid growth in sales of electric cars is great news, but it poses a conundrum for Ministers. As the Department for Transport designs a California-style ZEV mandate for the UK, Ministers must ensure that the scheme does not become a cap on ambition.”
UK market overview
Electric car sales are the fastest growing segment of the new car market in the UK, representing 19% of new car sales in November, up from 9% the year before. Petrol continues to decline, and diesel car sales are virtually nonexistent in the UK.
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 - 32%
Newcastle - 27%
Bristol - 26%
London - 24%
Birmingham - 22%
We present regional data on a three-month rolling average to account for irregular vehicle supply patterns.
Refer to tables 4 & 5 for full regional statistics.
The race for EV market share
November was one of the months when Tesla makes deliveries - usually every third month. They hold the biggest share of the market, but still only have 15% of the market for new EVs. November saw further evidence of how fast VW Group’s brands were trying to secure a share of the market, with Audi and VW brands between them seeing 3,101 cars and 15.3% of the market, beating Tesla.
For the full data, and year-on-year comparisons, refer to table 1 in the full release.
The manufacturers who are quickest to electrify
Niche brands dominate the list of the top ten brands that are quickest to electrify, but MG, Kia and Audi now have significant shares of their new cars being fully electric.
For the full data, refer to table 2 in the full release.
Notes
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.
