UK sees record-breaking March for new EV registrations
68,000 new EVs in March 2025 marks a new record, up 20% on the previous level
Welcome to the latest edition of Electric Car Count, your monthly update on electric car, van, motorbike and HGV sales in the UK - and the most up-to-date, free, comprehensive and detailed publication covering the EV transition in the UK. And what an update we have for you this month!
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Here is the news
The UK broke a new record for the number of EVs registered in a single month: 68,000, more than 20% higher than the previous record set in September 2024
That completed a winning Q1 for EVs, which saw the UK register more BEV cars in three months than Norway did in the whole of 2024
This came despite a slowdown in EV market leader Tesla’s sales, which stood still in March, growing only slightly over the whole quarter
March saw BEV car registrations grow in line with the other months of this year, by 38% (up by 18,500 units). This is approximately in line with the kind of growth that will be required to meet ZEV mandate targets. This was driven by significant growth in EV registrations from manufacturers Volkswagen, whose EV registrations grew by over 200% in Q1. BYD also saw significant growth in EV sales, with Q1 sales increasing 350% to 5,235. Taking into account their plug-in hybrid registrations, in Q1 they exceeded their total sales over the whole of 2024.
ZEV mandate update
The estimated real ZEV sales target - the headline ZEV mandate target for 2025 is 28%. But firms generate additional credits by exceeding CO2 emissions targets on their ICE vehicle sales (including hybrids and plug-in hybrids). We calculate the real target - 22.74% - by estimating the number of credits that each manufacturer is expected to generate based on the CO2 ratings of newly registered ICE cars in the year to date, using - like the rest of this bulletin - publicly available information from the DVLA.
2025 story so far - Amongst the top 10, VW Group (including Audi, Cupra, Skoda, and VW itself) as well as BMW Group (including Mini) are in credit. Now that the March madness in the petrol vehicle market prompted by changes to VED is subsiding, we anticipate more firms will move into credit.
We expect Trump's tariffs to have limited impact on the ZEV mandate. The UK barely imports EVs from the US - Teslas are made in Germany and China - and new EVs are price competitive with other fuel types, so the economic damage will be seen through stagnating car sales across all fuel types. Tariffs don’t move the economics of driving electric, which continue to favour making the switch.
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