September was another great month for EVs as demand for battery electric vehicles increased by 184.3% compared to September of last year, according to the latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
BEVs held a 6.7% market share in September, a stark improvement from last year where it was only 2.2%. Plug-in hybrids also have seen another robust increase as new registrations have skyrocketed 138.6% compared to September 2019.
Hybrid cars also had another strong month with a 55.8% increase, pushing their overall market share to a solid 8%.
While it has been a great September for greener technologies, petrol and diesel registrations have struggled as they have seen decreases of 38.4% and 20.9% overall respectively.
Looking more broadly at statistics, it is possible to notice how the hard year for internal combustion engines has massively benefited BEV, PHEV and HEV. All three have seen their market share gain an important increase. Now battery electric vehicles have a 5.4% share for the year to date compared to a mere 1.3% last year. Plug-in hybrids have seen an increase from 1.2% to 3.4% and Hybrids now have a 6.8% share compared to the 4.25% of last year.
Although it has been another very good month for the greener options, no electric car made it into the monthly top-10 of most sold vehicles, nor in the yearly one.
With little realistic prospect of recovering the 615,000 registrations lost so far in 2020, the sector now expects an overall 30.6% market decline by the end of the year, equivalent to some £21.2 billion in lost sales.
According to Mike Hawes, SMMT Chief Executive, this was a very rough month for new registrations.
“Despite the boost of a new registration plate, new model introductions and attractive offers, this is still the poorest September since the two-plate system was introduced in 1999,” he said.