Swindon is the number one location for electric vehicle sales in the UK, according to new data from Volkswagen Financial Services UK (VWFS). More finance cases for electric cars were activated in the Wiltshire town than anywhere else in the UK last year.
Stratford-upon-Avon, Tamworth and Solihull were in the top five locations for EV finance activations in 2021, making the Midlands a hotspot for EV sales in the UK. Guilford in Surrey also made the top five list.
The Volkswagen Financial Services data also revealed that sales of electric cars are on the rise in the UK. Annual finance cases for battery electric vehicles surged 160% between 2020 and 2021. From 2019 to 2021, annual EV finance cases rose 436%, despite tumultuous market forces.
CEO at Volkswagen Financial Services UK, Mike Todd, said: “The UK’s electric car market is in overdrive at the moment and the rapid acceleration of demand for electromobility has led to a phenomenal growth in this sector.”
The data revealed that people are now more likely to buy an EV than a petrol or diesel car. One in three models currently on the UK market are EVs, and a quarter are plug-in or fuel cell vehicles.
The Volkswagen ID.3 topped the list of activated finance cases, followed by the Porsche Taycan, the Audi Q4 e-tron and the Volkswagen ID.4. The Volkswagen Group made more than 37,000 battery electric car sales in 2021.
Todd added: “We’ve never had more EVs on our roads than we do right now, but I think the challenge in the short to medium term is to ensure that the public charging network keeps pace with the increasing popularity of electric vehicles.”
“Industry leaders have reported that to meet the government’s decarbonisation targets, we need to transition from one in a hundred cars on our roads being electric, to potentially one in three in just eight years,” said Todd. “It’s a tall order but if our data is anything to go by, I believe we are well on our way to achieving these important milestones.