BUMPER YEAR: New car sales hit two million mark – Punchline-Gloucester.com
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By Simon Hacker | 6th January 2026
Shrugging off post-pandemic inertia, green shoots in the UK car market were so vibrant in 2025 that the industry saw rising activity for a third year in a row – with new vehicle registrations smashing through the two million marker post.
Today’s reveal of the sector’s health from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders details how 2,020,520 new car registrations were recorded across 2025, with uptake in December rising by 3.9% to 146,249 units amid a final flourish in the private buyer market, which climbed by 16.0%.
Repeating a pattern seen in previous years, pure (battery) electric vehicle (EV) registrations took a high market share in the final month of the year, accounting for 32.2% of the market – marking the only time that the ZEV mandate target of 28% was exceeded in the period.
As a result, last year’s market rose in total by a robust 3.5%, with growth across all buyer types.
Demand from private buyers recovered slightly from 2024 – when uptake fell below levels last seen during 2020 – with a 4.5% increase to 779,587 units, but still only comprising 38.6% of registrations.
But fleet and business registrations meanwhile rose, up 2.6% to 1,194,545 and 8.8% to 46,388 respectively.
The SMMT said: “Electrified vehicles narrowly missed becoming the majority of the market despite a surge during the last quarter. Hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) volumes rose by 7.2% to achieve a 13.9% market share, while plug-in hybrids were the fastest growing powertrain, with volumes increasing 34.7% to take 11.1% of registrations.”
The most dramatic metric from the SMMT’s findings on 2025, however, concerns the raw numbers for EV sales: with half a million (473,348) new BEVs being registered in 2025, the tally outweighed sales for the whole of 2021 and 2022 combined.
This huge volume, which the SMMT believes is likely to place the UK as the second biggest EV market in Europe by volume, saw EV market share rise to reach 23.4%, and represented “a strong uplift”.
However, with the government’s mandate target of 28% means that the gap between demand and ambition is increasing rather than diminishing.
The framework for the ZEV mandate dictates that 2024 saw 22% of new car sales as EVs and 10% of the van market going fossil fuel-free, while 2025 set the target to 28% for cars. By 2030, four in five new cars and seven in 10 new vans must be zero-emission, while 2035 will see ALL new cars and vans sold as 100% zero-emission models – spelling the end of petrol/diesel sales.
Today’s figures, the SMMT said, show that massive manufacturer investment now provides a choice of more than 160 EV models – up from just over 130 at the start of 2025 – with at least 60 more due in 2026.
But EV uptake is still not quick enough if we are to meet the ZEV mandate, 2025’s sales having risen by 23.9% – a number markedly short of that 28% target.
The SMMT added: “The long-awaited return of a grant for EV purchase has helped, although only around a quarter of models are currently eligible for the incentive at any level. It is manufacturers, therefore, that continue to shoulder the burden of driving up demand, subsidising their sale by more than £5bn in 2025, equivalent to a massive £11,000 per BEV registered.”
Such cost absorption, the trade body warns, is unsustainable, while Chancellor Rachel Reeves announcement of a new ‘eVED’ tax on EVs purchased from 2028 “sends a confusing message to consumers, undermining rather than encouraging market confidence”.
Predominantly selling EVs here in the UK, Chinese companies accounted for 9.7% of the total new car registrations in the UK in 2025 (196,000 vehicles), with consumers showing little brand reticence at the prospect of such marques as BYD, MG, Omoda, Jaecoo and Geely. Here in Gloucestershire, BYD has a presence with Vertu Motors, while Omoda and Jaecoo models are sold through Warners and MG is represented by the Baylis Group.
In terms of the effect of all this growing momentum in new EV interest, Cheltenham-based Cleevely Electric Vehicles, which deals in multiple new used EV brands, said it was already experiencing the ripple effect.
David Smith, Sales Director, told Punchline-Gloucester.com: “Most of our vehicles are three to four year old and while the arrival of Chinese new brands represents clear downward pressure on new-car pricing and will therefore affect used values, we are seeing healthy footfall and sales. January can be a quiet time for us but we have sold four cars already, so the momentum in new sales is stimulating the entire market.”
He added: “Some brands, including Tesla, are holding their value well because of the huge diversity of choice while models such as Kia and Hyundai are proving to be solidly reliable as the market matures. In 2025, our best sellers were Hyundai’s Kona, Renault’s Zoe and, at the top, Kia’s E-Niro.”
Despite mixed messages from the government, ongoing momentum among buyers shifting to EVs was undeterred, he said: “When we look at the so-called “e-VED” road tax for EVs announced to kick in in 2028, we take a view that this is a long way ahead and that anything could happen to change such a plan, though we are saddened by the decision to set the new VED level for zero emissions cars from April at £200 for a year.
“Going from zero to £200 is a massive jump at a time when some old diesel models are rattling around out there with a tax bill of just £20. It’s certainly a confused message!”
In terms of related sectors which can plug into the success of EVs, related infrastructure suppliers may have good reason to see 2026 as a year for growing opportunities, the identified demand from the SMMT already having momentum from 2022’s changes to Building Regulations, which make EV charger provision mandatory in most new development circumstances.
For firms such as Ohme, the UK’s largest home EV charging company and the fastest growing firm in its sector across Europe, consumers are waking up to significant cost savings in their motoring budgets, with the tipping point for transition now firmly in the rear-view mirror.
David Watson, Ohme CEO, told Punchline: “The latest new car sales figures for 2025 underline the continued popularity of EVs across the UK at all levels. We are seeing increasing numbers of EVs enter the market at more affordable prices and with their running costs a fraction of equivalent petrol or diesel cars, many drivers are making the switch and enjoying those savings.”
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