UK Electric car sales UP THREE-FOLD in November

New car registrations in the UK fell by 1.3 per cent in November, but sales of electric cars rose three-fold with a  three per cent market share.

We’ve got rather used to new car sales/registrations in the UK falling every month which, with the political uncertainty weighing heavily on people’s minds since the Brexit referendum, is no real surprise.

And that uncertainty, no doubt made worse by the forthcoming General Election, has hit figures once again in November, with sales falling particularly amongst private buyers.

New car registrations from private buyers fell by 6.1 per cent – the biggest sector drop – with sales to business down by around half that at 3.2 per cent, although fleet sales did much better, up by 2.8 per cent.

But the drop in total registrations also throws up some positive news, with sales of alternatively fuelled vehicles (AFV) – hybrid, plug-in hybrid and BEV – accounting for more than 10 per cent of total registrations.

Of those AFVs, it was a rise of 34.8 per cent for plug-in hybrids and a rise of 15.0 per cent for hybrids, but the big jump came from sales of electric cars.

Electric car sales rose more that three-fold, jumping from 1,415 in 2018 to 4,652 this year, and jumping from a market share last November of under 1.0 per cent to 3.0 per cent last month.

Mike Hawes, SMMT boss, said:

These are challenging times for the UK new car market, with another fall in November [but] it’s good news, however, to see registrations of electrified cars surging again.

Nevertheless, there is still a long way to go for these vehicles to become mainstream and, to grow uptake further, we need fiscal incentives, investment in charging infrastructure and a more confident consumer.