Electric van market looks set to finish the year strongly
The UK’s electric van market looks set to finish the year strongly - despite another month of disappointing sales for the van market overall. The number of new diesel van registrations in November were down 39% compared to November 2021. In contrast, the actual number of new electric van registrations largely stayed the same, but has eaten into diesels market share since November last year. 9% of all new van sales in November were electric, meaning just under one in ten new van registrations were for a fully electric model.
⚡ What Our Data Shows
Ciara Cook, Research and Policy Officer at New AutoMotive, said:
“November was another month of positive sales figures for electric vans, as more and more businesses continue to make the switch to electric. However, there were still over 10 times the number of diesel registrations than there were electric. Given this, it is essential that the government continues to work to accelerate the transition and reduce the number of polluting vehicles on UK roads.”
“Those wanting to buy an e-van in the UK are now able to choose the model that best suits their needs, with a broad range of models on the market to choose from. Many manufacturers offer a diverse range of e-vans, suitable for businesses of all types and sizes. Consumers benefit from the diversity of models on the market, and this diversity is helping to drive the growing popularity of electric vans. This popularity will only continue to grow as more models hit the market.
“The government must support the continued growth of the electric van market. It is essential they act to ensure that targets set in the forthcoming ZEV Mandate reflect the current size of the market, and drive industry forward rather than simply acting as a backstop. The government should also clarify the support for businesses dealing with high electricity prices after April 2023, when the current support programme ends. Businesses which are doing the right thing and electrifying their fleets should be prioritised within any future support package.”
The full data release is available here. You can view the data on our interactive dashboard, here.
📈 UK market overview
Despite the van market overall shrinking year-on-year, EVs maintained the same total sales volume figures, and increased their portion of the market from 5% to 9% compared to November 2021. This represents only the second time that diesels market share has fallen below 90% - an encouraging development. However diesel vans still made up the overwhelming majority of new registrations for November, with more than ten times the number of diesel vans than electric vans.
🚗 The race for EV market share
Examining which manufacturers claimed the biggest share of the market, we see the usual suspects topping the list. Vauxhall, Ford and Peugeot were responsible for 66% of all new electric van sales in November. These manufacturers currently offer a range of different electric van models, to suit the needs of businesses across a range of industries. All three manufacturers offer models in the small, medium, and transit styles, meaning consumers are able to choose an electric model which best suits their specific needs. In fact, nearly all the top 10 vehicle manufacturers offer at least two different electric van models, highlighting the broad range of vehicles now on offer. Those vehicles from the top 5 manufacturers have an average range of 171 miles, meaning they will suit many businesses needs.
Despite the growth in electrics overall share of the market, a number of manufacturers experienced a reduction in the sales of their e-vans year-on-year. Maxus, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, and Volkswagen all recorded reductions in electric registrations. Mercedes-Benz recorded the largest reduction, with 189 fewer e-vans registered compared to the same month last year. It is hard to specify exactly why these reductions have occurred, but as more high-quality e-vans hit the market the competition to dominate the electric segment of the market will become more fierce.
Tesla has recently thrown its hat in the proverbial ring and entered the heavier van and truck market in the USA, with the announcement of a new electric semi-truck model with a 500 mile range. The electrification of these vehicles in the UK is not tracked by New AutoMotive, as there is currently an insignificant number of EV sales in this segment of the market, but this could mark a turning point. Tesla has been a leader in electric passenger vehicles for many years; will they be able to replicate this in the van and truck segment? Time will tell, but it is an announcement that shows how quickly technology is advancing, and could be an indication that the smaller van market will advance even quicker than expected.
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 is the manufacturer that tops this table. 70% of all their registrations were electric in November, up from 44% this time last year. Peugeot and Vauxhall have also seen strong growth as they move to electrify their van sales.
However, the manufacturers with the largest slice of the overall van market are electrifying more slowly. Ford tops the list of van registrations this year, yet only 4% of its total registrations for November were electric. Other high volume van manufacturers are also low down the list; Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz saw a reduction in the electric share of their van sales, with Volkswagen registering just 1% of their vans as e-vans this month. It is important manufacturers continue to progress in this category as we proceed to the 2030 phase-out of vehicles. Hybrid vans are a tiny proportion of sales, therefore e-vans will need to make up nearly all the registrations from this point.
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.
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.