The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has released figures detailing new car registrations in May 2021. Among other positive figures for electric vehicles, there are now officially over a quarter of a million (260,000) battery-electric vehicles on UK roads.
Although the effect of the lockdown in May last year still provides some anomalous comparative figures, it is worth noting that May 2021 was a strong month for BEVs, which held 8.4% market share.
What’s more, when comparing 2021 year-to-date with the same period last year, it’s great to see that sales of new battery-electric vehicles (BEV) and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV) have grown by 173%.
The chart above displays the number of registrations and the market share of plug-in vehicles each month over the past 13 months. As you can see, May 2021 saw a total of 22,975 new electric vehicle registrations, comprising 13,120 BEVs and 9,855 PHEVs.
This takes the cumulative total of plug-in vehicles on UK roads – as of the end of May 2021 – to over 535,000 (approx. 260,000 BEVs and 280,000 PHEVs). In terms of market share, plug-in sales were at 14.7% last month.
May 2021 was another good month for plug-in vehicle sales, which made up 14.7% of overall vehicle sales. As you can see in the graph above, this means they now represent 13.9% of market share in 2021 year-to-date. So far in 2021, BEVs represent 7.5% of market share, with PHEVs at 6.4%.
As in April, no plug-in vehicle made the top ten cars sold in the UK last month, although Tesla’s Model 3 did break into the top ten in March.
Sales of new plug-in vehicles continue to show very positive signs, with diesel sales appearing to fade somewhat. Importantly, charging point infrastructure continues to grow in the UK. Last week, for instance, Ofgem announced it is investing £300m into infrastructure for ultra-rapid chargers.
