One million battery-electric vehicles are registered in the UK

The UK’s one-millionth BEV car was registered in January. This major milestone was also accompanied by the 60,000th electric van hitting the road in the United Kingdom.

According to data from the UK-based Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), there are now one million battery-electric vehicles registered in the UK. The milestone was reached after an impressive 20,935 electric vehicles were registered over January, making for 14.7% of the overall vehicle market.

Other electrified vehicle variants also took a fair share of the UK vehicle market, with Plug-in hybrid registrations growing by 31.1% to take 8.4% of the market, while HEV volumes slightly fell with a 13.1% total share.

Next to the more general battery-electric vehicle milestone, the UK also hit a major milestone with electric transporter van registrations, which reached 60,000 registered vehicles. This number was hit as 1,186 registrations took place in January.

“More than a year of growth shows the importance of vans to Britain’s economy, and surpassing 60,000 electric vans is a crucial step in our net zero journey,” said Mike Hawes, SMMT’s Chief Executive, who added: “Industry is ready to deliver a mass market transition but buyer demand must increase massively, requiring everyone to play their part. Ramping up dedicated public van charging infrastructure in particular is essential for all UK businesses to be confident of making the switch, sooner rather than later.”

smmt.co.uk, smmt.co.uk (electric vans)