London (AFP) – All-electric vehicles accounted for nearly one quarter of new cars sold in the UK last year, a record high, industry data showed Tuesday, as Britain phases out combustion engines. The all-time annual high for EVs helped boost total car sales back above two million for the first time since before the Covid-19 pandemic, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said in a statement. The SMMT called the two-million mark “a reasonably solid result amid tough economic and geopolitical headwinds.”
With a record 473,348 all-electric vehicles registered in 2025, the SMMT said the UK ranked as Europe’s second-largest EV market by volume. Separate figures Tuesday showed a sharp rise in EV sales in Germany, where registrations surged 43.2 percent last year to a total of 545,142 vehicles. Although Norway registered far fewer vehicles last year, at almost 180,000, almost 100 percent were electric.
The UK is meanwhile sticking with a target to ban the sale of new combustion-engine vehicles as early as 2030, and hybrids in 2035. That makes Britain one of the most ambitious countries in the transition to electric vehicles, particularly after the European Union decided in December to roll back its proposed 2035 ban on new petrol and diesel cars. “Divergence between the UK and the much larger market on its own doorstep is broadening,” the SMMT noted Tuesday.
It warned, however, that too few EV models are eligible for government purchase grants and criticized the introduction of a tax on electric vehicles in Labour’s recent budget. “Rising EV uptake is an undoubted positive, but the pace is still too slow and the cost to industry too high,” the SMMT said.
Last year also saw disruption at Jaguar Land Rover’s UK plants, which halted production for a month following a cyberattack on the British automaker in September. JLR sales fell in its third quarter, with wholesale volumes down 43.3 percent and retail sales down 25.1 percent year on year, it disclosed Monday. The company attributed the decline to “the time required to distribute vehicles globally” after the shutdown, as well as “incremental US tariffs impacting JLR’s US exports.”
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