Electric vehicles made up nearly a quarter of all new UK car sales in 2025, hitting a record high as the country pushes towards a combustion engine ban.
LONDON: All-electric vehicles accounted for nearly one quarter of new cars sold in the UK last year, a record high, industry data showed.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said a record 473,348 all-electric vehicles were registered in 2025, helping total car sales surpass two million for the first time since before the Covid-19 pandemic.
The SMMT called the two-million mark “a reasonably solid result amid tough economic and geopolitical headwinds”.
With the figure, the UK ranked as Europe’s second-largest electric vehicle market by volume.
Separate figures showed a sharp 43.2% rise in EV sales in Germany last year to 545,142 vehicles.
Although Norway registered far fewer vehicles at almost 180,000, almost 100% were electric.
The UK is sticking with a target to ban the sale of new combustion-engine vehicles as early as 2030, and hybrids in 2035.
That makes Britain one of the most ambitious countries in the transition, particularly after the European Union decided to roll back its proposed 2035 ban on new petrol and diesel cars.
“Divergence between the UK and the much larger market on its own doorstep is broadening,” the SMMT noted.
It warned, however, that too few EV models are eligible for government purchase grants and criticised the introduction of a tax on electric vehicles.
“Rising EV uptake is an undoubted positive, but the pace is still too slow and the cost to industry too high,” the SMMT said.
Last year also saw disruption at Jaguar Land Rover’s UK plants, which halted production for a month following a cyberattack.
JLR sales fell in its third quarter, with wholesale volumes down 43.3% and retail sales down 25.1% year on year.
The company attributed the decline to “the time required to distribute vehicles globally” after the shutdown, as well as “incremental US tariffs impacting JLR’s US exports”.
