Electric car statistics: EV market insights July 2025

The gap between fleet and private demand

Sale type	2025 registrations	2024 registrations	% change	Market share 2025	Market share 2024
Private	46,490	50,457	-7.9%	38.6%	37.6%
Fleet	71,520	81,211	-11.9%	59.4%	60.5%
Business	2,321	2,606	-10.9%	1.9%	1.9%
Total	120,331	134,274	-10.4%

Despite an overall drop in new car registrations, across all sale types, market share for fleet purchases increased slightly YoY in April 2025. Fleet purchases currently account for around 6 in 10 new car registrations.

It’s important to note that fleet and business buyers benefit from tax incentives that are not available to private consumers.

For instance, BEVs are eligible for a 100% first-year allowance, which enables businesses to write off the full cost of the purchase against their pre-tax profits. Such incentives appear to be highly effective when it comes to drawing in fleet buyers.

New car market challenges and solutions 2025-2026

According to the SMMT’s April forecast for 2025:

• New car registrations are expected to rise 0.6% to 1.96 million, slightly below January’s forecast.
• BEVs will make up 21% of new registrations, achieving a market share of 23.5% (down from January’s 23.7% forecast).
• PHEV sales will grow by 17.8%, reaching a 10% market share.
• HEVs will gain a 15% market share after a 12.4% rise in volume.
• Diesel market share will drop to 5.3%, following a 15.6% fall in sales.
• Petrol sales will decline by 10.9%, reducing market share to 46.2%.

According to the SMMT’s April forecast for 2026:

• New car registrations are expected to rise 1.4% to 1.99 million (from 2025’s forecast figure of 1.96 million).
• BEV sales will rise by 20.5% to achieve a 28% market share (down from the 28.3% market share predicted in January).
• PHEV sales are set to grow 17.4% pushing market share to 11.6%.
• HEV sales are expected to grow to 11.8% to achieve a 16.5% market share.
• Diesel sales will fall by 15%, reducing market share to 4.4%.

webuyanycar’s head of technical services, Richard Evans said:

“BEVs, PHEVs, and HEVs are steadily reshaping the market, but future progress rests on improving affordability and consumer confidence. Automakers face the dual challenge of stimulating demand while complying with tightening ZEV mandate charges.”

Battery innovations could put an end to range anxiety

Solid state batteries

• Toyota is developing EV batteries that could deliver up to 932 miles (1,500km) of range in the future.
• In 2026, the Japanese automaker plans to launch a 621-mile-range battery with higher energy density, lower weight, and better aerodynamics than its predecessor.
• The target charge time from 10-80% is 20 minutes or less, with a 20% cost reduction when compared to Toyota’s current bZ4X batteries.
• Toyota is also working on low-cost batteries to support wider BEV adoption.
• A new bipolar lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery, based on tech used in its hybrids, is planned for BEV applications between 2026 and 2027.

Source: FleetNews

Falling battery prices

• Goldman Sachs researchers have projected that average battery prices could fall towards $80 (£65) kWh by 2026 – which would mark a drop of almost 50% from 2023 levels.

Nanowire batteries

• Scientists at the University of California are developing nanowire batteries that could last forever.
• The gold nanowires used are a thousand times thinner than a human hair and sit in an electrolyte gel, which prevents them from breaking down whilst recharging.
• After being recharged over 200,000 times over three months, they showed no signs of degradation.
• Nanowire batteries also have greater energy density than lithium-ion batteries, meaning EVs could travel much further on a single charge.

webuyanycar’s head of technical services, Richard Evans said:

“Toyota’s venture into fast-charging solid-state technology and the ultra-resilient nanowire batteries in the works at the University of California could be game-changers for the global EV market!

“If realised, these advances could not only address range anxiety but also reduce entry costs, paving the way for mass-market adoption.”

Market share by powertrain (2026-2018)

How has the UK’s EV market share grown over time?

• In 2016, BEVs accounted for just 0.4% of all new vehicle registrations.
• In 2024, BEVs secured a record 19.6% market share – and PHEVs made up a further 8.6% of registrations, bringing the total market share for plug-in vehicles to 28.2%.
• The number of annual BEV registrations grew over 10x from 37,092 in 2016 to 381,970 in 2024.
• The SMMT’s April 2025 forecast predicts 550,000 BEV registrations in 2026 - a near 15x increase from 2016!

Used electric car sales Q1 2025

• In Q1 2025, 65,850 used EVs changed hands, accounting for around 1 in 30 of all used car sales in the UK.
• This marks a 58.5% increase from the 41,505 recorded in Q1 2024.
• Industry data reveals that 2 in 5 used EVs on the private market are now priced below £20k.
• Tesla’s Model 3 was the UK’s fastest-selling used car between March 2024 and March 2025, taking an average of 23.8 days to sell.
• Nissan’s Qashqai (25.1 days) and Volvo’s XC40 (26.1) were the next best-sellers over the same period.
• In March 2025, BEVs achieved a 6.28% market share – more than double the share in March 2024.
• Used BEV prices fell by around 40% between January 2023 and July 2024.
• However, prices have been more stable recently, falling just 0.6% on average between February and April 2025.

Source: SMMT, Indicata

Best-selling EVs 2024-2022

UK BEV sales (2018-2024)

How many BEVs are there in the UK?

As of the end of April 2025, there were around 1.5 million BEVs registered in the UK (accounting for 4.41% of the UK’s 34 million car parc).

The volume of BEVs in the UK has more than trebled since of the end of 2021, when there were just 396,945.

EV chargepoint availability report 2025

How many EV charging stations are in the UK?

At the end of May 2025, there were 80,998 electric vehicle charging points in the UK, across 39,4773 locations.

Source: Zapmap

Private charging

At the end of 2024, there were more than 1 million chargepoints installed at UK homes with driveways.*

*This figure has been adjusted for two-BEV households and does not include home chargers installed for the 380,000 new PHEV drivers from March 2022 to December 2024.

Research from data analytics consultancy, Field Dynamics showed that around 67.2% of the UK’s 28.4 million households (approximately 19 million) have access to a driveway or a dedicated parking space nearby.

The remaining 32.8% (equating to around 9 million households) lack access to private home parking, meaning they cannot use a private chargepoint.

Source: Zapmap

EV chargepoint growth trends 2020-2025

Between January 2020 and January 2025, the number of publicly available EV charging devices in the UK grew from 16,505 to 73,334, marking an increase of 344%.

The UK Government is currently on track to meet its target of 300,000 public EV chargers by 2030.

There is currently ample public charging infrastructure to serve the UK’s 1.5 million EV parc.

However, as EVs with increasingly faster charging capabilities have hit the market, expectations for public charging speeds have also adjusted. Steps are being taken to meet this growing demand.

As of the end of April 2025, there were around 15,784 rapid or ultra rapid charging devices, across 6,176 charging locations. (Rapid chargers range from 50kW to 150kW, whilst ultra-rapid chargers are 150kw+.)

The number of faster chargepoints has trebled since the end of 2021 and the proportion of ultra-rapid charge points installed each year has risen from 36% in 2021 to 71% (from January to April 2025).

Source: Zapmap, GOV.UK

Improving battery technology and the future of EVs

• Improved energy density: A recent study has showed a 50% improvement in energy density with advanced composite cathodes.
• Solid state batteries: Solid-state batteries eliminate flammable liquid electrolytes, dramatically reducing the risk of fires.
• Greater longevity: Thanks to innovations in solid electrolyte materials, batteries can weather more charge-discharge cycles, extending their lifespan.
• Samsung SDI is one of the companies leading the development of this technology. Vice President Koh Joo-young said: “We have delivered samples to customers from the end of last year to the beginning of this year and have received positive feedback.”

Source: Science Direct, Samsung

Different types of EVs

Here is a quick explainer on the various types of EV on the market:

Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs)

Unlike the other hybrid variants on the market, BEVs are powered solely by an electric battery. Most BEVs have electric ranges between 100-300 miles.

(Whilst 200 miles or above is broadly considered a good range, a range of 100 miles may be sufficient depending on your daily commute.)

Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs)

PHEVs are powered by a combination of an electric battery and a fossil fuel (petrol or diesel) engine.

PHEV batteries are smaller compared to those found in BEVs and typically provide a range of 15-40 miles.

However, some premium PHEVs do provide larger ranges, such as the Toyota RAV4 PHEV (46 miles), BMW 2 Series 225e (56 miles), the Mercedes-Benz GLE 350de (66 miles) - and the Polestar 1 (93 miles).

Just like a BEV, a PHEV can be plugged in to charge its electric battery.

Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs)

A HEV is powered by a petrol and diesel engine, which charges a battery capable of propelling an electric drivetrain.

No manual charging is required with a HEV. Instead, the electric battery is recharged a little each time the driver brakes. This process is known as ‘regenerative braking’.

Unlike a PHEV, HEVs are not designed to be capable of running on electric power alone.

Mild hybrid electric vehicles (MHEVs)

A mild hybrid electric vehicle (MHEV) has a traditional combustion engine and a small electric battery, which helps it to run more efficiently. However, unlike other types of hybrid vehicles, it is incapable of running on electric power alone. Instead, the electric motor in a MHEV assists the ICE powertrain to improve efficiency.

There is no need to charge a MHEV. Instead, they convert the energy from braking into electricity, which is stored in the battery. Although MHEVs offer slightly better fuel economy compared to ICE equivalents, they cost more to run than other electrified cars.

Fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs)

Unlike other EVs that use a battery, fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) utilise hydrogen to generate electricity, which powers the electric motor. Instead, a FCEV has a fuel stack that combines hydrogen with the oxygen in the air to create electricity and water vapour, which powers the electric motor and drives the car forward.

FCEVs can be refuelled in around five minutes (much quicker than traditional EVs) and typically have a range of 300 to 400 miles. They are often lighter than BEVs due to the lack of a battery.

However, whilst BEVs can convert around 80% of the electricity in their batteries, today’s FCEVs can only convert 40-60% of their fuel’s energy, meaning they are less efficient than traditional fully-electric cars.

Hydrogen cars are generally more expensive than traditional electric cars. The cost of hydrogen production and charging infrastructure – and the sophisticated fuel tanks themselves contribute to the higher price tags.

There are only around 300 FCEVs on UK roads – and some of these are buses. The lack of public charging infrastructure remains a barrier to widespread adoption. As of January 2025, there are only 16 hydrogen refuelling station in the UK.

How do EVs work?

EVs are powered by one or more electric motors rather than an ICE engine. These motors are powered by a rechargeable battery, which can be replenished by plugging the vehicle into an electric charger.

What factors affect EV performance?

Your real-world electric range may differ from the advertised figure (which often reflects a best-case scenario). Factors that affect EV performance include your driving style, weather conditions - and the degree to which features such as the in-car heating and air conditioning are used.

Smart energy recovery technology

EVs utilise technology that converts kinetic energy into electricity whilst braking or travelling uphill, automatically topping up the battery.