Sales of electrified vehicles grew by about 20% throughout the uk this past year versus the explosive expansion of nearly 40% that’s seen over the remaining European Union.
Given the lowering of government incentives, the interest rate of growth and development of plug-in cars has become falling significantly behind the EU average.
The latest figures?for new car registrations, released Monday with the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders (SMMT), reveal record registrations of hybrid, electric, and hydrogen cars in the UK recently, with year-on-year growth topping 20 per-cent.
The petrol electric hybrids remained the most popular choice, up +21.3% to 81,156 units. Plug-in hybrids also recorded a very good uplift (+24.9%) across the year, even though figures suggest growth is slowing following the eliminating the Government’s plug-in car grant because of vehicles in October.
Demand for PHEVs grew almost 30% in the first 10 months, but year on year increases fell to 3.1% and eight.7% in November and December respectively. Pure electric cars, meanwhile, grew 13.8% in the year but, with just 15,474 registered, they still make up only 0.7% in the market.
While cleaner cars are soaring in popularity, diesel car sales have plummeted by almost 30 per-cent.
“Supportive, not punitive measures are necessary to grow sales, because replacing older cars with technology, whether diesel, petrol, hybrid or plug-in, is wonderful for the earth, the individual, this is a additionally, the exchequer,” said Mike Hawes, chief executive of SMMT.
