Fleet and enterprise orders accounted for nearly two in each three new automobile registrations in January, when the month’s market ended at its highest degree since 2020.

Of the 142,876 new automobiles offered in January, which was 8.2% up on January 2023, 35% have been to non-public motorists. In actual fact personal registrations have been down nearly 16% yr on yr at 50,244 items.

Volkswagen, BMW and Kia occupied the three podium locations when it comes to gross sales quantity, though VW’s consequence was nearly 8% down on January 2023.

Throughout the month 20,935 battery electrical automobiles (BEVs) have 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 progress 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 automobiles has dropped and warns that is an ongoing development that can undermine the UK’s potential to ship internet zero emissions.

Forward of subsequent month’s Funds from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the SMMT is lobbying for presidency assist briefly halving VAT on new BEV purchases to make electrical automobiles extra inexpensive and enticing for personal motorists.

It says such a step would value the Treasury a median of simply £1,125 per automobile, and would put greater than 1 / 4 of one million electrical automobiles on the street by the top of 2026, on high of these already anticipated. Not solely would this reduce CO2 by greater than 5 million tonnes throughout that point, it will imply that the subsequent million EVs may very well be delivered in simply two years. 

“It’s taken simply over 20 years to achieve our million EV milestone – however with the appropriate insurance policies, we are able to double down on that success in simply one other two,” stated Mike Hawes, SMMT chief government.

“Market progress is at the moment depending on companies and fleets. Authorities should subsequently use the upcoming Funds to assist personal EV patrons, briefly halving VAT to chop carbon, drive financial progress and assist everybody make the swap. 

“Producers have been requested to produce the autos, we now ask authorities to assist customers purchase the autos on which internet zero relies upon.” 

Sue Robinson, Nationwide Franchised Sellers Affiliation chief government, stated: “Regardless of the optimistic begin to the yr, it can be crucial that the Authorities continues to assist the automotive business throughout the transition to zero emissions by investing in charging infrastructure and supply for monetary incentives for EV patrons. These points have been highlighted to the Authorities in NFDA’s 2024 Spring Funds submission.

“In NFDA’s 2024 outlook survey the highest three most prevalent causes given by dealerships as to why prospects usually are not contemplating buying an EV embrace vary (82%), nervousness round lack of chargers (82%) and price (80%).

“2024 seems to be set to be an vital yr for the automotive business, and we’re assured that automotive retailers will proceed to indicate their robustness via these difficult instances.”