December and Year in Review: Electric vans claimed 8% of the overall market
To mark the end of 2022, we are releasing a special extended edition of Electric Van Count. This edition will provide monthly figures for December, as well as look backward at the last 12 months and assess how e-van take-up fared over 2022.
⚡ What Our Data Shows
December was a disappointing month for van sales, bringing the curtain down on a year in which the British new van market shrank considerably. E-vans were not immune from these contractions, and we did not see the surge in electric registrations we have come to expect for December. However, they maintained the steady growth of the last few months, claiming 8% of the overall market.
Ciara Cook, Research and Policy Officer at New AutoMotive, said:
“The electric van market has shown resilience in a month which saw just under 8,000 fewer vans registered compared to figures from last year.
“For the fifth time this year electric vans have surpassed the level of market share proposed as an initial target in the forthcoming ZEV Mandate, which is slated to start this time next year. This is progress - but it demonstrates just how out of date and out of touch with the market these proposals now are. It is imperative that the government takes note of the progress achieved this year and revises the target upwards, or else the mandate risks holding the industry back.
“It is important that the gains that electric vans have made in the market over 2022 continue to be consolidated and improved upon in 2023. This means that the government must continue to offer support to businesses thinking of switching to an e-van. Prioritising the grants offered to those seeking to make the switch, as well as continuing to offer support to businesses during the ongoing energy crisis, is crucial to continuing to encourage the uptake of electric vans.”
The full data release is available here. You can view the data on our interactive dashboard, here.
📈 UK market overview
Electric van’s share of the market remained largely steady compared to figures from last year. However, there was a slight decline in the actual volume of e-vans registered year-on-year. This was a trend seen across all fuel types, with the largest fall seen in new diesel vehicles, with a drop of just under 7,000 vans. 2022 has seen the contractions in the van marketplace hit new diesel sales the hardest, however in December figures show all fuel types suffering from the overall shrink in new van registrations.
🚗 The race for EV market share
The top manufacturers for December are Vauxhall, Peugeot, and Mercedes, accounting for 66% of all e-vans registered this month. Only Vauxhall, who accounted for 1 in 3 e-van purchases, managed to improve the total number of EVs registered year-on-year.. Mercedes took the biggest hit in sales, with a reduction of 79% compared to last year's figures.
For the full data, and year-on-year comparisons, refer to table 1 in the full release.
📊 The brands who are quickest to electrify
As we have come to expect, Maxus tops this table. 68% of their sales this month were electric, up from just 11% last year. They are also the manufacturer that has seen the most improvement year-on-year. Of the larger volume manufacturers, Vauxhall comes in second with around 1 in 3 vehicles being electric. Mercedes continues their bad run of form, with only 10% of registrations being electric - a 52% decrease in figures from last year.
We exclude brands that are 100% electric from this table since they do not need to electrify their sales. For the full data, refer to table 2 in the full release.
⚡ 2022 in review
2022 has been a watershed year for vans in many ways. In a much smaller van market, hit by various external pressures, electric vans have managed to grow both in terms of actual sales volume and market share, which is fantastic news. More and more businesses are now able to access the cost savings that an electric van can offer. With consumer confidence low, businesses can only benefit from these savings. The e-van market accounted for 6% of registrations this year, up from 4% last year. A total of 16,846 e-vans were registered, compared to 12,185 - an impressive rise given the shrinking market. The government must seek to build on this momentum and do more to ensure faster progress in the coming year.
UK market overview: 2022
2022 has been a tough year, and many households and businesses have had to cut costs in the midst of a generational cost of living and energy crisis. Given this, it is no surprise that the new van registrations have suffered. 268,586 new vans were registered in the UK over 2022, down 21% from registrations in 2021. Crucially, this is lower than sales figures for 2020, when covid-19 lockdowns severely affected the market. All eyes will be on whether the van market can recover over the course of 2023.
However, this shrinkage has largely come at the expense of diesel vehicles - meaning a smaller number of polluting vehicles hitting British roads, which is positive. Electric van uptake should be supported in order to help plug the deficit the shrinking market is creating, and to help businesses who are looking to find cost savings as they struggle with a weaker economy. E-vans have been the only fuel type to increase in actual sales volume as well as grow its market share significantly compared to figures from 2021. Looking further backwards in time, it is clear this is part of a longer term trend. Looking at figures from 2019, there has been a five fold increase in the number of E-vans being registered in the UK.
Van manufacturers in transition: leaders and laggards of 2022
Consumer choice is crucial in helping any market grow, and those now looking to buy a van are faced with more choice than ever before. As we fast approach the phase out of new petrol and diesel vehicles in 2030 the market will inevitably expand and more models will become available - those manufacturers that are behind now may face a struggle to enter the market. In Electric Van Count we usually examine the progress of individual brands, however for the end of year review we are taking a closer look at parent companies.
The fastest three
The parent companies that improved the quickest year-on-year are Stellantis, Toyota, and Geely. Stellantis improved the most, almost tripling their market share - Peugeot in particular regularly hit the top 5 brands to electrify over the year. Toyota also improved their standing. Toyota has struggled to get into the electric car market, so it is encouraging to see the company make some progress in the van market. All three companies have come from a standing start in 2020, so it is impressive to see such improvement in a short period of time.
The biggest three
This section looks at the companies that had the biggest volume of electric vehicles registered, and what proportion of their sales were electric. Both Stellantis and Toyota are on the board again, and it is encouraging to see them topping both this and the quickest to electrify chart. Ford has the most popular vans in the UK and their e-transit van has proven popular. However, e-vans still account for a tiny proportion of their overall sales and this will have to improve fast as we approach 2030.
The slowest three
This graph shows those who made the least progress in electrifying their sales year-on-year. Piaggio, a small Italian manufacturer, sold no e-vans in 2022, a significant dip in its numbers from 2021 (although it should be noted this is from a small base). Of the higher volume manufacturers, SAIC Motor, which includes Maxus, which regularly tops EVCs fastest to electrify, failed to make any gains on electrifying their fleet, however they do remain at around 40%, which is an impressive figure. The Renault- Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance has seen a dip in electrification compared to the last three years which is a worrying trend for the partnership.
Notes
About Electric Van Count
Electric Van 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 Van Count provides an overview of the newly licensed vans. It is released monthly, on the second Monday of each month, providing data on the previous month’s newly licensed vans. 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 Electric vans in the UK.
Visit our interactive data dashboard here: https://newautomotive.org/evc
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 shows the number of type N1 vehicles (vehicles for the carriage of goods with a maximum mass not exceeding 3.5 tonnes) 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 vans 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.