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...

By Matt Bird / Tuesday, 6 January 2026 / Loading comments

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…