Fleet and enterprise orders accounted for nearly two in each three new automotive registrations in January, when the month’s market ended at its highest stage since 2020.
Of the 142,876 new vehicles bought in January, which was 8.2% up on January 2023, 35% had been to non-public motorists. The truth is non-public registrations had been down virtually 16% yr on yr at 50,244 models.
Volkswagen, BMW and Kia occupied the three podium locations by way of gross sales quantity, though VW’s consequence was virtually 8% down on January 2023.
Throughout the month 20,935 battery electrical vehicles (BEVs) had been registered, which was 21% up yr on yr, and the share of the market taken by BEVs reached 14.7%.
Plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) recorded quantity development of 31.1% to take 8.4% of the market, whereas hybrid (HEV) volumes fell -1.2% with a 13.1% share.
The SMMT has highlighted that personal demand for electrical vehicles has dropped and warns that is an ongoing pattern that can undermine the UK’s capacity to ship web zero emissions.
Forward of subsequent month’s Price range from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the SMMT is lobbying for presidency help quickly halving VAT on new BEV purchases to make electrical vehicles extra reasonably priced and engaging for personal motorists.
It says such a step would value the Treasury a median of simply £1,125 per automotive, and would put greater than 1 / 4 of one million electrical vehicles on the highway by the top of 2026, on prime of these already anticipated. Not solely would this minimize CO2 by greater than 5 million tonnes throughout that point, it might imply that the subsequent million EVs might be delivered in simply two years. 
“It’s taken simply over 20 years to succeed in our million EV milestone – however with the fitting insurance policies, we will double down on that success in simply one other two,” mentioned Mike Hawes, SMMT chief government.
“Market development is at present depending on companies and fleets. Authorities should subsequently use the upcoming Price range to help non-public EV consumers, quickly halving VAT to chop carbon, drive financial development and assist everybody make the swap. 
“Producers have been requested to provide the automobiles, we now ask authorities to assist customers purchase the automobiles on which web zero relies upon.”
Sue Robinson, Nationwide Franchised Sellers Affiliation chief government, mentioned: “Regardless of the constructive begin to the yr, it is vital that the Authorities continues to help the automotive trade in the course of the transition to zero emissions by investing in charging infrastructure and supply for monetary incentives for EV consumers. These points have been highlighted to the Authorities in NFDA’s 2024 Spring Price range submission.
“In NFDA’s 2024 outlook survey the highest three most prevalent causes given by dealerships as to why prospects are usually not contemplating buying an EV embody vary (82%), anxiousness round lack of chargers (82%) and price (80%).
“2024 appears set to be an necessary yr for the automotive trade, and we’re assured that automotive retailers will proceed to point out their robustness by means of these difficult occasions.”
