New statistics from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) and Zapmap lay out both new car registrations and the growth of electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure in January.
New registrations of pure-electric cars showed a year-on-year increase of almost 20%, with 17,294 cars sold. Pure-electric cars came in third in terms of market share, behind petrol and hybrid cars. Indeed, pure-electric cars, or BEVs, accounted for just over 13% all new car sales last month.
However, it’s not only electric cars that have demonstrated growth. New EV charging statistics from Zapmap show that there are now officially more than 37,000 public charging devices in the UK, with 37,851 total charging devices across the country at the end of January.
Moreover, certain segments of the UK’s charging infrastructure continue to show impressive growth, such as ultra-rapid charging devices, which have seen a 77% increase since January last year.
The Zapmap graph below shows the number of new battery-electric cars registered each month over the the past 13 months.
January 2023 saw a total of 26,403 new plug-in car registrations, comprising 17,294 BEVs and 9,109 PHEVs.
This takes the cumulative total of plug-in cars on UK roads – as of the end of January – to over 1,135,000. That total comprises over 680,000 BEVs and more than 455,000 PHEVs.
The chart above displays the cumulative number of battery-electric cars in the UK since 2016.
So far in 2023, 17,294 BEVs have been sold in the UK, alongside 9,109 PHEVs.
Last month’s sales saw plug-in cars take 20% of market share, with BEVs accounting for over 13% of overall car sales in January.
This means that plug-in cars currently represent 20% of market share in 2022, with PHEVs at 6.9%.
Although no pure-electric car made the top ten bestsellers in January, the latest EV charging statistics from Zapmap show that 839 new charging devices were installed across the country last month. This brings the UK total to 37,851 devices, across 22,355 locations. It also represents a 31% increase in the number of charging devices since January 2022.
Furthermore, last month saw 170 new rapid and ultra-rapid charging devices installed, bringing the total to 7,579. This includes an increase of 77% in the number of ultra-rapid devices – capable of adding from 70 miles in as little as 15 minutes – since January last year.
Looking ahead, charging provider evyve is planning to install 10,000 EV chargers by 2030, while ubitricity is to treble the existing EV charging network in Liverpool.
