Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) grew 24.6% to reach 19,574 units, while plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) recorded the highest proportional growth, up 60.5% to 14,285 registrations. Battery electric vehicle (BEV) uptake increased for the 42nd month in a row, by 20.1% to 23,943 units. Given overall market growth, however, this amounted to a BEV market share of 15.6%, a relatively small rise from last year’s 14.8%.
Zero emission capable vehicles continued their upward trend, with plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) rising 1.0% and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) posting another strong month, up 18.2% to account for one in six new UK car registrations.
During Q4 2022, the ratio of new chargepoint installations to new plug-in car registrations dropped to one for every 62 – a significant fall compared with the same quarter last year, when the ratio was 1:42. As a result, in 2022, one standard public charger was installed for every 53 new plug-in cars registered, the weakest ratio since 2020.
While private buyers accounted for more than half of all registrations, fleets and business buyers were responsible for the lion’s share of BEVs, accounting for two thirds (66.7%) of all BEV registrations and 74.7% of the volume gain in 2022. Delivering the scale and speed of market transition required to meet climate change targets will require action to enthuse more private buyers to go electric.
Optimise Prime saw UK Power Networks and Hitachi join forces with Scottish and Southern Energy Networks as well as the UK’s biggest fleet operators, Uber, Royal Mail, and British Gas to understand when, where and how often employees charge on-the-go, at home and in a depot. The live trials from the project concluded in June 2022.
