The UK van market has increased by 10% from September 2021
Van sales in September were higher than in the same month last year, marking a positive month for new vehicle registrations overall. It was also a good month for electric van sales, with registrations increasing 89% from September 2021 and accounting for 5% of all new van registrations. In a turbulent time for businesses, it is encouraging that electric van registrations have not suffered and continue to grow at an encouraging pace.
⚡ What Our Data Shows
Ciara Cook, Research and Policy Officer at New AutoMotive, said:
“September was a difficult month for many businesses, especially with the uncertainty around what support would be offered for those struggling with the energy crisis. Despite this, electric vans continue to be registered at record levels, demonstrating the confidence businesses have in electric vans.”
“With the government’s package for businesses now in place, electric vans are considerably cheaper to run than their diesel counterparts. Using average energy efficiency figures for both vehicles types, New AutoMotive has calculated that the average cost per mile of a diesel van will be 19.29 pence per mile, whilst running an electric van will cost just 8.51 pence per mile - meaning electric is 77% cheaper to run per mile than diesel.”
“It is worth recognising that some level of uncertainty still exists. Government support is only guaranteed for 6 months, and it's likely businesses will need further reassurance that their bills will not increase again in March. The government should indicate early how businesses will be supported after this scheme ends, to ensure the long-term cost savings of switching to electric are maintained.”
The full data release is available here. You can view the data on our interactive dashboard, here.
📈 UK market overview
The UK van market has increased by 10% from September 2021, marking a significant rise in the van market this year. September is usually a bumper month for registrations and to record an increase in registrations compared to the same month last year will be seen as a positive sign by the industry. Although electric vans continue to be the fastest growing market segment, diesels dominance is still evident.
🚗 The race for EV market share
At the top of the table for electric van sales is Vauxhall, who accounted for 44% of all electric sales this month. September was a strong month for the marque, with Vauxhall selling 483 more electric vans than in September 2021. Maxus has also had a strong month, accounting for 14% of electric vans registered and cementing its reputation as a manufacturer to watch out for. The top 3 manufacturers accounted for 69% of all electric van sales this month.
For the full data, and year-on-year comparisons, refer to table 1 in the full release.
📊 The brands who are quickest to electrify
For the fourth time in a row Maxus tops this table, with 51% of its total registrations being electric. Vauxhall comes in second, with 18% of its total registrations being electric this month. Ford, as one of the most popular van brands, sits in 9th spot with only 1% of its vans electric despite registering a respectable 180 electric vans this month.
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.