The latest statistics from New Automotive and the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) reveal that one in four new cars registered in February 2025 was an EV.
New AutoMotive’s latest Electric Car Count report found that registrations of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) grew by 37.4% in February, marking the fifth consecutive month where over 20% of new cars were fully electric. Meanwhile, the SMMT’s monthly car registration data revealed that sales of BEVS grew by 41.7% year on year to reach a 25.3% market share in 2025, with sales of plug-in hybrids and hybrid electric vehicles growing year on year by 19.3% and 7.9% respectively.
Sales of petrol and diesel vehicles have been continuing to decline, falling by 17.3% and 15.1%, respectively, year on year, according to the SMMT. Furthermore, the SMMT notes that sales of EVs are likely to surge again next month, as buyers seek to purchase their vehicles before the expansion of the expensive car supplement (ECS) on 1 April, a tax increase that will add around £2,125 in costs over six years to the cost of EVs with a list price over £40,000.
New AutoMotive also notes that sales of electric vans and heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) rose in February, with electric van registrations rising by 49.3% across the month and electric HGV registrations skyrocketing by 72.2% in February 2025.
Ben Nelmes, CEO of New Automotive, said: “Motorists are voting with their feet, with one in four confident enough to make the switch to an electric car in February. The latest figures show that the UK’s policies to encourage electric vehicle adoption are working. Ministers should stay the course and give businesses and consumers the certainty they need to invest in an electric future.
“Carmakers invested billions in bringing EVs to market, and the UK’s energy sector is investing billions in chargepoints, creating jobs in every nation and region of the UK. Now is the time to build on this momentum, not slow down.”
Colin Walker, head of transport at the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), added: “This is further evidence that the ZEV mandate, introduced by the previous government, is working and that the car industry is more than capable of hitting its sales targets for 2025. With EV sales at 23% for the year so far, the car industry as a whole is already exceeding the level of sales it needs to reach to comply with the ZEV mandate, once the various flexibilities built into the regulation are taken in to account.
Walker adds that these statistics indicate a strong EV market with significant healthy competition and that the market must not be disincentivised by any potential weakening of the ZEV mandate.
He states: “As manufacturers compete to hit their targets, prices are driven down and sales are driven up, enabling more people to enjoy cheaper and cleaner electric driving. This dynamic would be lost were the mandate to be weakened. Prices would go up, and sales would go down.
“This, in turn, would stunt the growth of the second-hand EV market, leaving millions of families stuck in petrol cars paying a premium of £1600 a month, and costing a total of £40bn in additional driving costs.”
The drivers of EV popularity
The falling cost of EVs, and the increased availability of public chargepoints, is likely responsible for this uptick in EV sales.
A report released earlier this week by New AutoMotive noted that around 80% of drivers could save money by switching to an EV, with the average driver able to save over £5,000 over the course of a vehicle’s lifetime if they switch to an EV.
While the perceived lack of public EV chargepoints has traditionally been a barrier to those seeking to switch to an EV, numbers of EV chargepoints across the UK are high and growing at a significant pace. Data from chargepoint mapping service Zapmap published earlier this week has revealed that the UK now has over 75,000 publicly available chargepoints in operation, a number which has increased 32% since February 2024.
