Tuesday 6th January

2025 UK car sales top 2,000,000

Last year was the best for new car sales post-pandemic, but it's not all good news... 

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For the first time since 2019, more than two million new cars were sold in the UK in 2025: the SMMT says there were 2,020,520 new registrations last year, up 3.5 per cent over 2024. The SMMT’s Chief Exec Mike Hawes said: “The new car market finally reaching two million registrations for the first time this decade is a reasonably solid result amid tough economic and geopolitical headwinds”. 

Delving into the stats reveals more than a few interesting trends. There were nearly half a million EVs registered in the last 12 months (473,348), which is more than the number sold in 2021 and 2022 combined; despite that making us the second largest EV market in Europe, a market share of 23.4 per cent still falls short of the 28 per cent Zero Emissions Mandate. BMW was one of the makers that just snuck over the threshold, with 28.1 per cent of its cars being purely battery powered (33,945 of 170,051, with Mini helping overall group EV figures), but plenty of others will still be falling short. Given the huge discounting that’s been in place to meet the mandate, and the fact the number this year is 33 per cent, the situation isn’t going to get any easier in the near future, making the upcoming review all the more important. The current situation simply doesn’t feel sustainable for anyone. In fact, the SMMT says that the gap between the sales share of EVs and what the mandate aims for is growing rather than shrinking: in 2024 the aim was for 22 per cent of cars sold to be zero emission, and it was 19.6 per cent, whereas for ‘25 the mandate was 28 per cent and the sales share was 23.4 per cent. 

The situation looks trickier still given that purely combustion cars remain the preference for customers. Last year petrol and diesel cars accounted for 51.5 per cent of new cars sales in the UK, or 1,041844 units; the remaining 48.5 per cent were accounted for by electric cars (473,348), plug-ins (225,143) and hybrids (280,185). All of the electrified segments enjoyed growth through 2025; while diesel and petrol declined (they had 58.5 per cent share in 2024), a trend that seems likely to continue, you wouldn’t want to predict anything with much certainty right now. 

The top sellers in 2025 were the usual suspects that offer a range of powerplants: the Puma was number one (where would Ford be without that?), its 55,488 units miles ahead of the second-placed Kia Sportage, of which 47,788 examples were shifted. The rest of the top 10 features the Juke, Golf, Corsa, Qashqai and so on. The best selling EV was the Tesla Model Y, at 24,298 cars, not far off the Hyundai Tucson (28,613), which was the 10th-placed car overall.

It would be interesting to know what the powertrain split is on those cars like the Puma and Corsa, where there’s so much choice. Are the Corsa Electric and Puma Gen-E on the way to becoming the biggest sellers in the range, or accounting for just a few thousand sales? The SMMT is abundantly clear on what it thinks needs to happen, suggesting that the ZEV mandate review ‘will be a crucial opportunity to ensure the transition supports the UK’s international competitiveness and prosperity, as well as its shared decarbonisation goals.’

Hawes added: “Rising EV uptake is an undoubted positive, but the pace is still too slow and the cost to industry too high. Government has stepped in with the Electric Car Grant, but a new EV tax, additional charges for EV drivers in London and costly public charging send mixed signals.” You can say that again: only around a quarter of EVs are eligible for the grant, rapid DC charging is still 75p/kWh or above, and in two years’ time an EV driver doing 10k annually will have to find another £300 for the privilege. Little wonder folk are sticking with combustion. Still, the upside of the confusion is that EV bargains remain numerous: there’s nearly £10k off this 2025 Corsa, this 23-mile VW ID.7 is £30k (a new one is more than £50,000), and this BMW i5 was £80k 5,000 miles ago - and it’s certainly not that now… 

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• Official: EV plan to ban combustion engines binned
  
• New sub-£20k Renault Twingo revealed in full

[Wardy78]

Here for the conspiracy theorists arguments on both side of the EV debate, but my take-away is that it's good news that the car market continues to strengthen.

[Muddle238]

Of those 500k-odd EVs, I wonder how many are private sales and how many are fleet/company car/salary sacrifice vehicles.

[CG2020UK]

Impressive that car registrations have increased despite the majority having their personal spending power decrease.

[garypotter]

It will be an interesting year to see jhow many 2nd hand EV's are sold and what the depreciation is especially when net zero gets kicked in the bucket by Nigel!!

When our bankrup gvmt decides to stop giving the ev grant i wonder how many will be sold?

But evs still are outsold by petrol/diseisel models

[SDK]

-> Registrations are not sales
-> Only EV's are pre-registered
-> All Fleet and Motability, not private
-> The EV experiment will be finished
-> Just wait until Reform get in

[Wardy78]

Muddle238 said:

Of those 500k-odd EVs, I wonder how many are private sales and how many are fleet/company car/salary sacrifice vehicles.

Difficult to extrapolate as whilst 42% of total cars registered were private sales and 56% were 'fleet', fleet includes private leasing/PCH. It's also not broken down by fuel type.

[ThingsBehindTheSun]

Muddle238 said:

Of those 500k-odd EVs, I wonder how many are private sales and how many are fleet/company car/salary sacrifice vehicles.

I would love to see this figure broken down into

1)How many were registered by Motability
2)How many were fleet/company car/business registered
3)How many were leased on cheap 2/3 year deals (like the recent Ford Puma, Leap C30 deals and Honda e:ny1)
4)How many were pre registered by the dealerships and are currently for sale on Autotrader with less than 10 miles on the clock as used.

I am guessing that the number of cars that are private sales would be in the tens of thousands.

[Wardy78]

ThingsBehindTheSun said:

Muddle238 said:

Of those 500k-odd EVs, I wonder how many are private sales and how many are fleet/company car/salary sacrifice vehicles.

I would love to see this figure broken down into

1)How many were registered by Motability
2)How many were fleet/company car/business registered
3)How many were leased on cheap 2/3 year deals (like the recent Ford Puma, Leap C30 deals and Honda e:ny1)
4)How many were pre registered by the dealerships and are currently for sale on Autotrader with less than 10 miles on the clock as used.

I am guessing that the number of cars that are private sales would be in the tens of thousands.

1) Motability figures are also easy to find. about 20% of new car sales were through the Motability scheme, and 13.4% of cars sold through the Motability scheme during 2025 were electric (doesn't say if that is full EV or also includes hybrid, I suspect the former) - so a lower proportion of cars than general sales...BUT....thats to be expected given the price point of EVs and the allowance level for Motability.

2) as above, c55%, but that also includes private lease/PCH.

3) no idea, but a lot. As has always been the case I suspect.

4) Manufacturers have had to publish the numbers pre-registered since 2000 (part of the Supply of New Cars Order 2000). It's actually a very small number (available on the SMMT website). The most recent figures are from Nov 2025:

Cars Pre-Registered

SEAT 271
VOLVO 139
VOLKSWAGEN 15
MG 14
SKODA 8
AUDI 7
RENAULT 3
DACIA 1
BMW 0
KIA 0
FORD 0
MERCEDES 0
TOYOTA 0
NISSAN 0
HYUNDAI 0
VAUXHALL 0
PEUGEOT 0
LAND ROVER 0
TESLA 0
MINI 0
HONDA 0
CUPRA 0
CITROEN 0
MAZDA 0
SUZUKI 0
PORSCHE 0

So a total of 458 cars were pre-registered out of total registrations of over 150,000. So about a third of one-percent.

[Angelo1985]

Wardy78 said:

Here for the conspiracy theorists arguments on both side of the EV debate, but my take-away is that it's good news that the car market continues to strengthen.

Same, mate. Popcorns ready. I just had to wait for the 4th comment to start laughing :-)

[missing the VR6]

Wardy78 said:

1) Motability figures are also easy to find. about 20% of new car sales were through the Motability scheme, and 13.4% of cars sold through the Motability scheme during 2025 were electric (doesn't say if that is full EV or also includes hybrid, I suspect the former) - so a lower proportion of cars than general sales...BUT....thats to be expected given the price point of EVs and the allowance level for Motability.

2) as above, c55%, but that also includes private lease/PCH.

3) no idea, but a lot. As has always been the case I suspect.

4) Manufacturers have had to publish the numbers pre-registered since 2000 (part of the Supply of New Cars Order 2000). It's actually a very small number (available on the SMMT website). The most recent figures are from Nov 2025:

Cars Pre-Registered

SEAT 271
VOLVO 139
VOLKSWAGEN 15
MG 14
SKODA 8
AUDI 7
RENAULT 3
DACIA 1
BMW 0
KIA 0
FORD 0
MERCEDES 0
TOYOTA 0
NISSAN 0
HYUNDAI 0
VAUXHALL 0
PEUGEOT 0
LAND ROVER 0
TESLA 0
MINI 0
HONDA 0
CUPRA 0
CITROEN 0
MAZDA 0
SUZUKI 0
PORSCHE 0

So a total of 458 cars were pre-registered out of total registrations of over 150,000. So about a third of one-percent.

That pre-reg list is by the manufacturers, not dealers. The Skoda dealer I work for has more than 8 alone!

[Wardy78]

missing the VR6 said:

Wardy78 said:

1) Motability figures are also easy to find. about 20% of new car sales were through the Motability scheme, and 13.4% of cars sold through the Motability scheme during 2025 were electric (doesn't say if that is full EV or also includes hybrid, I suspect the former) - so a lower proportion of cars than general sales...BUT....thats to be expected given the price point of EVs and the allowance level for Motability.

2) as above, c55%, but that also includes private lease/PCH.

3) no idea, but a lot. As has always been the case I suspect.

4) Manufacturers have had to publish the numbers pre-registered since 2000 (part of the Supply of New Cars Order 2000). It's actually a very small number (available on the SMMT website). The most recent figures are from Nov 2025:

Cars Pre-Registered

SEAT 271
VOLVO 139
VOLKSWAGEN 15
MG 14
SKODA 8
AUDI 7
RENAULT 3
DACIA 1
BMW 0
KIA 0
FORD 0
MERCEDES 0
TOYOTA 0
NISSAN 0
HYUNDAI 0
VAUXHALL 0
PEUGEOT 0
LAND ROVER 0
TESLA 0
MINI 0
HONDA 0
CUPRA 0
CITROEN 0
MAZDA 0
SUZUKI 0
PORSCHE 0

So a total of 458 cars were pre-registered out of total registrations of over 150,000. So about a third of one-percent.

That pre-reg list is by the manufacturers, not dealers. The Skoda dealer I work for has more than 8 alone!

That's just the figures from November 2025, so either your dealers 8 are the listed 8, or the ones you have were pre-registered in different months (or a mixture of the two).

[SDK]

AutoTrader is showing 1,655 EV's for sale registered in 2025 and with less 100 miles.
Total EVs 'registered' in 2025 : 473,348

So less than 1% [0.35%)


EV's registered in 2024 still for sale with less 100 miles : 353

Registrations without 'sales' is a tiny fraction of a percent


Time to move on !

[Wills2]

Wardy78 said:

That's just the figures from November 2025, so either your dealers 8 are the listed 8, or the ones you have were pre-registered in different months (or a mixture of the two).

They retain the vast bulk of pre registered cars for more than 3 months so they then don't have to declare them, what you're seeing is the very tip of the iceberg.

[S600BSB]

Angelo1985 said:

Wardy78 said:

Here for the conspiracy theorists arguments on both side of the EV debate, but my take-away is that it's good news that the car market continues to strengthen.

Same, mate. Popcorns ready. I just had to wait for the 4th comment to start laughing :-)

Same!

[Wardy78]

Wills2 said:

Wardy78 said:

That's just the figures from November 2025, so either your dealers 8 are the listed 8, or the ones you have were pre-registered in different months (or a mixture of the two).

They retain the vast bulk of pre registered cars for more than 3 months so they then don't have to declare them, what you're seeing is the very tip of the iceberg.

It would make no difference, the figures are from when they are (pre)registered. Doesn't factor in whether they are kept for a day or a year after that.


I also used SDK's Autotrader approach with VR6's Skoda comment.

Autotrader currently show 157 2025 Skodas for sale with less than 100 miles.

77 are petrol
44 are diesel
15 are electric
21 are hybrid

So if that is representative across all brands, EVs are a lot less likely to be pre-reg'd.

[SDK]

Wardy78 said:

Wills2 said:

Wardy78 said:

That's just the figures from November 2025, so either your dealers 8 are the listed 8, or the ones you have were pre-registered in different months (or a mixture of the two).

They retain the vast bulk of pre registered cars for more than 3 months so they then don't have to declare them, what you're seeing is the very tip of the iceberg.

It would make no difference, the figures are from when they are (pre)registered. Doesn't factor in whether they are kept for a day or a year after that.


I also used SDK's Autotrader approach with VR6's Skoda comment.

Autotrader currently show 157 2025 Skodas for sale with less than 100 miles.

77 are petrol
44 are diesel
15 are electric
21 are hybrid

So if that is representative across all brands, EVs are a lot less likely to be pre-reg'd.

The whole it's 'All pre-registrations ' is just getting boring now!
All car fuel types get pre-registered, happening for multi decades already. On AT, currently there are nearly 3x more petrol pre-registered cars for sale than there are EV's

Number of 2025 registered cars, with less than 100 miles, for sale on AutoTrader




Even if there were 20,000 pre-registered EV's not for sale on AutoTrader and parked up in a field somewhere (Very unlikely as click-bait media would be all over it), it would still be less than 3% of the total number of EV's registered in 2025.

[Panamax]

I wonder what percentage of the 2 million cars sold in UK were built in UK?

Come to that, I wonder how many cars were actually built in UK in 2025?

[JD]

Panamax said:

I wonder what percentage of the 2 million cars sold in UK were built in UK?

Come to that, I wonder how many cars were actually built in UK in 2025?

About 8%

About 700k

[theicemario]

Lord have mercy

https://www.smmt.co.uk/uk-new-car-market-breaches-...

[Panamax]

JD said:

About 8%
About 700k

^^ Thanks. Assuming those numbers are correct it's painful reading.