Two models account for over half of plug-in vehicles on UK roads

The Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid and the pure battery-electric Nissan Leaf account for well over half (57%) of all ultra-green vehicles on the road.

The RAC Foundation has analysed the latest DVLA data to see which of the 39 vehicles currently available for the government’s plug-in car and van grants are most common on the UK’s roads.

The research found that the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV remains the most popular ultra-green vehicle in the UK with 16,100 cars licensed at the end of Q4 2015 (up 2,001 or 14% on the previous quarter).

Next comes the Nissan Leaf at 11,219 (up 778 or 7% on the previous quarter).

Combined, there are 27,319 of these two models on the road out of a total of 47,920 vehicles which could have been bought with the government grants.

After the Mitsubishi Outlander and Nissan Leaf come the BMW i3 (3,574), Renault Zoe (3,327) and Tesla Model S (2,087).

This is the list of all 39 vehicles that are, or have been, eligible for the government’s plug-in car and van grant schemes and which were on the road in the UK at the end of Q4 2015 (the most recent date for which figures are available).

 

Rank	Make and Model	Q4 2015	Q3 2015	Q2 2015
1	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	16,100	14,099	12,066
2	Nissan Leaf	11,219	10,441	9,310
3	BMW i3	3,574	2,943	2,484
4	Renault Zoe	3,327	2,401	2,062
5	Tesla Model S	2,087	1,346	1,047
6	Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid	1,580	1,501	1,439
7	Volkswagen Golf GTE	1,359	1,025	350
8	Vauxhall Ampera	1,272	1,279	1,250
9	Audi A3 e-tron	1,218	1,033	570
10	Nissan e-NV200	1,047	896	705
11	BMW i8	1,022	964	823
12	Renault Kangoo ZE	740	731	719
13	Mercedes-Benz C350 e	628	128	19
14	Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid	395	361	336
15	Peugeot Ion	374	371	368
16	Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid	337	314	299
17	Mitsubishi i-Miev	251	250	252
18	Smart ForTwo Electric Drive	212	216	215
19	Citroen C-Zero	167	199	205
20	Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive	162	157	61
21	Mercedes-Benz S500 Hybrid	157	159	138
22	Kia Soul EV	145	83	53
23	Volkswagen e-up!	142	133	124
24	Chevrolet Volt	122	119	125
25	Volkswagen e-Golf	114	98	88
26	Renault Fluence	70	71	71
27	Volvo XC90 T8 Twin Engine	38	–	–
28	Mercedes-Benz Vito E-Cell	23	21	27
29	Ford Focus Electric	19	21	23
30	Mia (all variants)	15	14	12
31	Toyota Mirai	4	2
32	BMW 225xe	–	–
=	BMW 330e	–	–
=	BYD e6	–	–	–
=	BD Otomotiv eTraffic	–	–	–
=	BD Otomotiv eDucato	–	–	–
=	Citroen Berlingo EV	–	–	–
=	Peugeot ePartner	–	–	–
=	Smith Electric Smith Edison	–	–	–
	TOTAL	47,920	41,376	35,241

Note: Some of the vehicles above might have been bought without the grant. Others might be licensed to manufacturers and dealers rather than customers.

Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said: “So far there seems to have been no stopping the march of the Mitsubishi Outlander, which has retained the top spot with the help of competitive pricing and strong marketing. With the Nissan Leaf still a close second to the Outlander it seems that consumers are still in two minds over whether to buy a pure electric car or a hybrid. As ever, three or four things will be key in the decision making: the upfront price, running costs, residual value and the type of driving the buyer does.

“In the coming year the hurdle for Mitsubishi and several other manufacturers will be the changes made to the plug-in car scheme on 1 March including a new tier system. Not only has the maximum car grant dropped from £5,000 to £4,500 per vehicle, in some cases it will be as little as £2,500. It is good to see a van in the top ten. The use of electric vans for deliveries in urban areas, with battery recharging done back at base each night, always seemed like a good idea to us and these numbers suggest more businesses are making the same calculation.”

[source: RAC Foundation]