July saw the UK’s electric car market have its best performing month ever, taking a little over a 2% market share for the first time.

Significant growth for both pure electric models and plug-in hybrids combined with an overall decline in sales for the 2% figure to be reached. Pure EVs had an exceptional month, up 105% on July 2016 with 860 models registered. PHEVs still fared well, with a growth of 43% vs last year.

The strong performance of plug-in vehicles contrasts strongly with diesel’s performance, which continues to fall significantly. With 20% fewer sales than last year, the UK’s drop in new car registrations across all fuel types is largely attributable to this. Petrol cars were down 3% too though, and it is only alternatively fuelled cars – including hybrids – that was positive performances.

To date, there have now been more than 107,000 plug-in car grant eligible vehicles registered, 3,277 of those in July 2017. Last month’s figures were 50% up on the year before, and almost 25,000 PiCG-eligible models have been registered so far this year, up around 4,000 units compared to the same period in 2016.

In terms of EV market share, PHEVs had a far stronger month than in recently, with three quarters of plug-in car sales. Total electric car registrations came in at 3,503 for June, which also shows that more than 6% of plug-in car sales were not eligible for the PiCG. Whether that’s because of price or emissions/electric range, we don’t know.

All in all, July was a very positive month for electric cars and further typifies the shift away from diesel in the public consciousness. With recent news pieces about a ban on non-electrified new car sales in the UK from 2040, plus other announcements from manufacturers, it seems as though drivers are looking at plug-in models more than ever before.

Although July’s registrations were the sixth highest figures ever for the UK plug-in car market, the far more important aspect is how many are sold in comparison to conventional internal combustion cars.

July is typically a fairly quiet month for the market, only a little ahead of February and August – the months before the new registration plates – in terms of overall sales. It is encouraging then to see that plug-in cars are actually increasing in popularity while petrol and diesel sales – the latter especially – drop.

Source: Next Green Car