New car sales surge by 3.5% after skyrocketing demand for EVs – Birmingham Live
Sales of new cars grew by 3.5% last year amid a surge in demand for electric vehicles (EVs), new figures show. Lobby group the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said 2.02 million new cars were registered in 2025.
That is compared with the total of 1.95 million during the previous 12 months, and represented the third consecutive year of growth.
Registrations of pure battery EVs were up 23.9% year-on-year to 473,348. This was a market share of 23.4%, up from 19.6% in 2024. The volume is expected to place the UK as the second largest EV market in Europe, behind Germany.
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The Labour Party government’s zero-emission vehicle (Zev) mandate set a headline target for at least 28% of cars sold by each manufacturer in the UK last year to be zero-emission, which generally means pure battery electric.
SMMT chief executive 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.
“Rising EV uptake is an undoubted positive, but the pace is still too slow and the cost to industry too high.”
Mr Hawes said manufacturers discounted new EVs by a total of £5.5 billion in the UK last year, which is equivalent to an average of more than £11,000 per car sold.
Tanya Sinclair, chief executive of pressure group Electric Vehicles UK, said EVs offer “strong value for money” and “best-in-class performance”, but called for “clearer, more consistent policy signals” to boost the number of motorists making the switch.
Ginny Buckley, the chief executive of EV buying advice website Electrifying.com, said “education will unlock the next wave of EV buyers, not uncertainty”.
Ian Plummer, chief commercial officer of online vehicle marketplace Autotrader, said the UK “could be getting close to the tipping point on electrified vehicles” as “nearly half of all new cars sold last year were electric or hybrid”.
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