UK: Plug-In Car Sales Growth Stalled In May 2022

All-electric cars are still expanding, but plug-in hybrids continue to decrease.

By: Mark Kane

Jun 6, 2022 at 9:24am ET

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In May, new passenger car registrations in the UK decreased by 20.6% year-over-year to 124,394, which is the second weakest May since 1992. The year-to-date result is also weaker than a year ago (661,121, down 8.7%).

The market situation is very challenging now, in big part due to supply shortages. According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), even plug-in electric car sales decreased compared to the previous year.

Last month's passenger plug-in electric car registrations amounted to 22,787, which is 0.8% less than a year ago. The market share improved to 18.3%.

As usually, a quick look at the data reveals that all-electric car sales continue to increase (although slower than previously, by 18% year-over-year), while plug-in hybrids are stuck in the red for another month (down 26%). PHEVs are now decreasing even faster than the overall market, while conventional hybrids are up 12%.

Hopefully, plug-ins will return to faster growth once supply constraints will ease, but it might take some time.

Plug-in electric car registrations in the UK – May 2022

BEVs: 15,448 (up 18% year-over-year) at market share of 12.4%
PHEVs: 7,339 (down 26% year-over-year) at market share of 5.9%
Total: 22,787 (down 0.8% year-over-year) at market share of 18.3%

So far this year, more than 136,000 new passenger plug-in cars were registered in the UK, reaching an average market share of over 20%.

New plug-in car registrations, year-to-date in 2022:

BEVs: 92,512 (up 71% year-over-year) - market share of 14.0%
PHEVs: 43,549 (down 5% year-over-year) - market share of 6.6%
Total: 136,061 (up 36% year-over-year) - market share of 20.6%

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Just like in April, there is no data about plug-in models and it appears that none of the stand-alone plug-in cars were able to enter the top 10, unlike in March, when two EVs were on the top.

LCVs

In terms of light commercial vehicles (LCV), some 22,000 were registered last month (down 25% year-over-year). Out of that, about 869 were all-electric (up 47%), which translated to a market share of 4.0%.