Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV was top selling plug-in car in the UK in Q2 2016

The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV continues to dominate the plug-in electric vehicle market with 21,708 of the vehicles licensed in the UK at the end of Q2 2016.

The Outlander PHEV makes up 33% of the total of 66,374 plug-in grant eligible vehicles on the road. In second place after the Outlander comes the pure battery-electric Nissan Leaf at 12,837.

In third place is the BMW i3 (4,457) which is available with a choice of drive trains: pure battery electric or a range extended version (where a petrol internal combustion engine is used to recharge the battery on long journeys).

The Renault Zoe (4,339) is fourth most common, followed by the Mercedes-Benz C350e (3,337) which has leapt ahead of the Tesla Model S (3,312) and Volkswagen Golf GTE (2,657) to take fifth place.

The Outlander, Mercedes-Benz C350e and BMW 330e were the only three cars to increase their licensed numbers by more than a 1,000 in Q2 2016.

Four of the five vehicles with the highest growth in licensed numbers over the quarter were plug-in hybrid versions of regular cars:

– Mitsubishi Outlander (PHEV) – 1,763
– Mercedes-Benz C350e (PHEV) – 1,439
– BMW 330e (PHEV) – 1,113
– Golf GTE (PHEV) – 687
– Tesla S (pure battery powered) – 486

This is the list of all 41 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 Q2 2016 (the most recent date for which figures are available).

Rank	Make and Model	Q2 2016	Q1 2016	Q4 2015	Q3 2015	Q2 2015
1	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV (all variants)	21,708	19,945	16,100	14,099	12,066
2	Nissan Leaf	12,837	12,469	11,219	10,441	9,310
3	BMW i3 (of which are range extended versions)	4,457 (3,131)	4,065 (2,855)	3,574 (2,440)	2,943 (1,940)	2,484 (1,579)
4	Renault Zoe	4,339	3,918	3,327	2,401	2,062
5	Mercedes-Benz C350e	3,337	1,898	628	128	19
6	Tesla Model S	3,312	2,826	2,087	1,346	1,047
7	Volkswagen Golf GTE	2,657	1,970	1,359	1,025	350
8	Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid	1,655	1,651	1,580	1,501	1,439
9	Audi A3 e-tron	1,634	1,445	1,218	1,033	570
10	Nissan e-NV200 (all variants)	1,487	1,243	1,047	896	705
11	BMW 330e	1,479	340	–	–
12	BMW i8	1,307	1,163	1,022	964	823
13	Vauxhall Ampera	1,267	1,261	1,272	1,279	1,250
14	Volvo XC90 T8 Twin Engine	813	561	38	–	–
15	Renault Kangoo ZE	785	755	740	731	719
16	Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid	475	454	395	361	336
17	Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid (all variants)	410	366	337	314	299
18	Peugeot Ion	405	383	374	371	368
19	Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive	303	193	162	157	61
20	Mitsubishi i-Miev	252	257	251	250	252
21	Smart ForTwo Electric Drive	215	214	212	216	215
22	Citroen C-Zero	213	192	167	199	205
23	Kia Soul EV	193	170	145	83	53
24	BMW 225xe	163	65	–	–
25	Volkswagen e-up!	154	150	142	133	124
26	Mercedes-Benz S500 Hybrid	125	129	157	159	138
27	Volkswagen e-Golf	123	120	114	98	88
28	Chevrolet Volt	119	122	122	119	125
29	Renault Fluence	79	78	70	71	71
30	Ford Focus Electric	22	19	19	21	23
30	Daimler Mercedes-Benz Vito E-Cell	22	23	23	21	27
32	Mia (all variants)	15	15	15	14	12
33	Toyota Mirai	11	9	4	2
34	Volkswagen Passat GTE	1	1
35	BYD e6	–	–	–	–	–
=	BD Otomotiv eTraffic	–	–	–	–	–
=	BD Otomotiv eDucato	–	–	–	–	–
=	Citroen Berlingo EV	–	–	–	–	–
=	Peugeot ePartner	–	–	–	–	–
=	Smith Electric Smith Edison	–	–	–	–	–
=	Mahindra e20	–	–
	Total	66,374	58,470	47,920	41,376	35,241

Note: Some of the vehicles above might have been bought without the grant. Some might be licensed to manufacturers and dealers rather than customers. The total number licensed is below the total number of grants claimed because of the lag between an order being placed and the car being delivered.

[source: RAC Foundation]