Skip to main content

Moneybarn: 1,800% increase in UK electric car registrations over five year period

Nearly 10,000 electric cars are now registered in the UK with Japanese and German manufacturers dominating most popular brands in the UK, according to a five-year analysis on the development of the Electric vehicle industry by Moneybarn. These findings have been revealed following the government’s plan to ban the sale of all petrol and diesel vehicles from 2040.
November 2, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
Nearly 10,000 electric cars are now registered in the UK with Japanese and German manufacturers dominating most popular brands in the UK, according to a five-year analysis on the development of the Electric vehicle industry by Moneybarn. These findings have been revealed following the government’s plan to ban the sale of all petrol and diesel vehicles from 2040.


The growth in sales suggest that Electric vehicles (EVs) are no longer considered niche specialist vehicles with most popular manufacturers bringing out their own versions. In 2016, figures showed that Japan’s Mitsubishi’s Outlander had the highest market share of 7,572, followed by Nissan Leaf, 5,535. Germany’s Mercedes C Class came next with 5,164 followed by the BMW 3 Series 4,637. The lowest market share of 1,378 is held by is Germany’s Volkswagen Golf, which is 116 less than France’s Renault Zoe, whose market share is at 1,494.

Figures from the Department of Transport registrations of Ultra Low Emission Vehicles (ULEVs) have increased by 1,864% since 2011 which has seen the number of EVs registered on Britain’s roads rise from 2,129 five years ago to almost 100,000 at the end of last year. In addition, the increased demand from the British public for ULEVs is reflected by government initiatives and budget plans. The recent Clean Growth Strategy proposal suggests there will be an investment of £1 billion ($1.3 billion) to support the take-up of electric and other low-emission vehicles.

A standardised green score from the Council for Energy-Efficient Economy has revealed that most of the best cars for efficiency and emissions are purely electric models and the list of the most highly-rated is dominated by Asian Toyota, Mitsubishi and Nissan.

Simon Bayley, sales and marketing director of Moneybarn, said: “It’s a potentially exciting time for the UK car industry. Electric and alternative energy cars have now moved into the mainstream and are here to stay. With the government investing £1b in this sector there is an alignment between manufacturers and government that will hopefully encourage consumer purchasing for years to come.”  

A full breakdown of the number of registrations from 2011 to 2016 is available on the %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 link-external website false https://www.moneybarn.com/emission-impossible/ false false%>.

Related Content

  • September 4, 2018
    Petrol/diesel cars could be fined for using London’s ‘electric streets’
    Drivers in London, UK, could be fined £130 for not using electric or hybrid vehicles on nine ‘electric streets’. The project is intended to cut pollution and improve air quality. Drivers of petrol and diesel cars will be restricted from using some roads in the Shoreditch and Old Street areas of the city between 7am-10am and 4pm-7pm on weekdays.
  • September 8, 2017
    Low carbon vehicle technology competition winners announced at LCV 2017
    The winners securing a share of a recent US$5 million (£3.9 million) investment for low carbon development and demonstration projects in the niche vehicle sector have been announced at LCV 2017. Thirty projects have been successful in receiving grant funding from the Niche Vehicle Network competitions, collectively supported by Innovate UK, the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) and the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC).
  • September 8, 2017
    Low carbon vehicle technology competition winners announced at LCV 2017
    The winners securing a share of a recent US$5 million (£3.9 million) investment for low carbon development and demonstration projects in the niche vehicle sector have been announced at LCV 2017. Thirty projects have been successful in receiving grant funding from the Niche Vehicle Network competitions, collectively supported by Innovate UK, the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) and the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC).
  • October 15, 2019
    EU states support Denmark’s diesel ban proposal
    Ten European Union (EU) countries have backed a proposal from Denmark to ban the sale of diesel and petrol cars by 2040. Danish climate and energy minister Dan Jorgensen told Reuters that the ban will hopefully put pressure on the European Commission to the propose phasing out of fossil fuel-powered vehicles. He also suggested allowing individual countries to implement this measure if the EU could not agree on a union-wide ban. Lithuania, Latvia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and other countries have suggested tha