Mathilde Carlier
Research Expert covering transportation and logistics
Electric vehicles in the United Kingdom - Statistics & Facts
To support its transport decarbonization goals, the United Kingdom’s previous Conservative government committed to banning new petrol and diesel car sales by 2035, with the current Labour government pledging to return this deadline to 2030. Despite the previous government’s target delay, car manufacturers will still have to meet certain quotas for selling electric cars beginning in January 2024. They must ensure that more than one in every five cars sold is a zero-emission vehicle or risk facing heavy fines. Under the Conservative government’s policies, this ratio will increase from 20 percent in 2024 to 80 percent by 2030 and 100 percent in 2035. These ambitious targets will rely heavily on the continued expansion of the UK’s electric vehicle fleet, which reached over 1.47 million cars in 2023, including battery-electric, plug-in hybrid electric, and extended-range electric vehicles.
Charging infrastructure access is one of the main hurdles the United Kingdom will need to address to reach its fleet electrification targets. Government plans from 2022 aimed for the public charging network to grow to 300,000 charging points by 2030, and the industry body for charge point operators, ChargeUK, has made a commitment to invest more than 6 billion Great British pounds in charging infrastructure before 2030. In July 2024, the country had achieved nearly 21 percent of this goal—Just over 64,600 public charging devices of all charging speeds were available in the country. Most of these chargers used alternating current, a typically slower type of charging, as each vehicle’s onboard chargers need to convert the electricity into direct current.
Charging speed is one of the many challenges of EV charging access. Most of the UK’s public network has restricted accessibility, meaning drivers cannot recharge their vehicles at all hours of the day. Destination chargers were also the most common chargers along UK roads. Destination charging refers to charging devices available at the end of a driver’s journey, such as in car parks, retail car parks, and leisure places. As of July 2024, there were around 29 percent more destination chargers than on-street chargers, which are available in residential areas. Despite this disparity between charging locations, lack of charging access is not among the top three consumer concerns about BEVs in the UK. Driving range was the leading concern of consumers regarding BEVs. While 53 percent of consumers are concerned about driving range, 46 percent of them are concerned about access to charging infrastructure.
The growing popularity of EVs in the UK
In many cases, an electric car is cheaper to drive in terms of maintenance and repair than a diesel or petrol car. Some estimate that driving an electric car saves 700 Great British pounds on average in a year compared to driving a petrol or diesel car. The lower running cost factor and governmental incentives have been making EVs more popular in the UK. In 2023, battery-electric was the second most popular propulsion type within new passenger car registrations, with around 314,700 sales. Its popularity has been increasing over the past years, despite the overall drop in passenger car sales recorded in the UK after the COVID-19 pandemic and lower total new passenger car registrations than pre-pandemic levels. The various types of electric propulsion were the only car types to record a rise in sales between 2019 and 2020, while fossil fuel vehicle new registrations decreased. The supply chain issues, which started in 2021, and the raw material price hike in 2022 did not halt the battery-electric vehicle (BEV) market expansion. BEVs made up most of the estimated electric vehicle revenue in the UK in 2023 and were projected to amount to around 25.4 billion Great British pounds in 2029. This inflated BEV demand also contributed to the United Kingdom ranking among the leading European markets for electric cars. Moreover, the UK government expects to see higher numbers of EVs with higher ranges, thanks to battery costs declining by about 80 percent over the last ten years and further decreases expected.Access to electric vehicle charging is a hurdle for the EV market
England’s South East region topped both the electric car parc and new electric vehicle registration rankings in 2023, reporting the country's largest electric vehicle fleet and market. This success is reflected at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) local authority level, as around 43 percent of new cars in Oxford were electric. This made Oxford the first local authority with the largest share of EVs among new vehicle registrations. The successful electric vehicles record in the South East partly relates to the region having the widest network of public rapid electric vehicle charging points and ranking second for its overall public charging network.Charging infrastructure access is one of the main hurdles the United Kingdom will need to address to reach its fleet electrification targets. Government plans from 2022 aimed for the public charging network to grow to 300,000 charging points by 2030, and the industry body for charge point operators, ChargeUK, has made a commitment to invest more than 6 billion Great British pounds in charging infrastructure before 2030. In July 2024, the country had achieved nearly 21 percent of this goal—Just over 64,600 public charging devices of all charging speeds were available in the country. Most of these chargers used alternating current, a typically slower type of charging, as each vehicle’s onboard chargers need to convert the electricity into direct current.
Charging speed is one of the many challenges of EV charging access. Most of the UK’s public network has restricted accessibility, meaning drivers cannot recharge their vehicles at all hours of the day. Destination chargers were also the most common chargers along UK roads. Destination charging refers to charging devices available at the end of a driver’s journey, such as in car parks, retail car parks, and leisure places. As of July 2024, there were around 29 percent more destination chargers than on-street chargers, which are available in residential areas. Despite this disparity between charging locations, lack of charging access is not among the top three consumer concerns about BEVs in the UK. Driving range was the leading concern of consumers regarding BEVs. While 53 percent of consumers are concerned about driving range, 46 percent of them are concerned about access to charging infrastructure.
