UK car registrations up 15% in February

London – UK new car sales rose by 15.0% year-on-year in February with a total of 58,994 cars registered during the month, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has announced.

The rise, SMMT said, is mainly due to a pandemic-linked shutdown of showrooms across the UK in February 2021.

Despite the positive performance, registrations were down 25.9% on pre-pandemic levels, as vehicle supply remained constrained by semiconductor shortages.

In its 4 March statement, SMMT also noted that February is typically the lowest volume month, as many buyers delay purchases until the ‘new plate’ month of March.

The month was, however, “another bumper month” for battery electric vehicles, which took a 17.7% market share to reach 10,417 units.

Registrations of plug-in hybrids rose to 4,677 units and a 7.9% share of the market.

When combined with hybrid registrations of 6,883 cars, electrified vehicles accounted for more than a third of all new cars leaving dealerships.

In view of the strong performance, SMMT renewed its call for an “accelerated public chargepoint provision”.

“Investments are being made, but at a pace that continues to lag behind plug-in vehicle uptake,” it added.

In addition, April will see the effective end of the Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS), which supported homeowners to install their own chargepoint.

SMMT urged the EVHS scheme as well as its business counterpart, the Workplace Charging Scheme to be extended beyond 2025 to ensure EV uptake remains strong in the UK.

It also recommended that VAT on electricity used for public charging points to be cut to match that for home use.

The move, it said, will make sure that EV drivers are treated equally regardless of where they charge their vehicle.