April saw an artificial 30-fold increase of new car registrations compared to the same month last year, but volumes still remained -12.9% lower than the 10-year average at just 141,583 new units, according to the latest figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
This year’s monthly total dwarfed that recorded in April 2020, when the first national lockdown effectively shut the country, and just 4,321 cars were registered.
Total plug-in vehicle market share broadly followed the trend seen in recent months, accounting for just over one in eight vehicles, or 13.2%.
Unusually, plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), at 6.8% of the market, were more popular than battery electric vehicles (BEVs) at 6.5%, following cuts to the Plug-in Car Grant. Monthly BEV uptake was down compared with Q1 2021 overall, however, as they had been running at 7.5% of total registrations.
BEVs are now expected to account for 8.9% of registrations by year-end – down from the 9.3% initially forecast in January, in light of March’s changes to the Plug-in Car Grant. With PHEVs anticipated to take a 6.3% market share, total plug-in vehicles should comprise 15.2% of all cars registered in 2021.
Overall registrations for 2021 now stand at 567,108 units, some -32.5% down on the average recorded over the past decade. However, the full impact of showrooms reopening has yet to be realised, given the delay between a customer initially visiting a dealership, deciding on a model and then taking delivery of that new vehicle is normally a number of weeks.
April saw further evidence that more manufacturers are racing to secure a share of the market for new EVs. New AutoMotive’s monthly data release, the Electric Car Count, which tracks new car registrations in Great Britain, shows that the market for new EVs is distributed between an increasing number of manufacturers.
Top ten: the race for market share
This table shows the manufacturers who registered the most EVs in the month in question and thereby secured the biggest share of the market for new EVs.
| Make | Number of EVs registered in April ‘21 | % of all EVs registered in April ‘21 |
| VOLKSWAGEN | 760 | 12.45 |
| KIA | 631 | 10.34 |
| AUDI | 528 | 8.65 |
| PEUGEOT | 501 | 8.21 |
| MERCEDES-BENZ | 498 | 8.16 |
| MG | 408 | 6.69 |
| POLESTAR | 298 | 4.88 |
| NISSAN | 282 | 4.62 |
| RENAULT | 264 | 4.33 |
| PORSCHE | 264 | 4.33 |
Top ten manufacturers electrifying the quickest?
This table ranks manufacturers based on who has sold the most EVs as a percentage of all the cars they’ve sold. (It will exclude any manufacturers that only sell EVs, e.g. Tesla).
| Make | EVs as % of the manufacturer’s total registrations in April ‘21 | Number of EVs registered in April ‘21 |
| PORSCHE | 33.12 | 264 |
| MG | 25.40 | 408 |
| JAGUAR | 18.52 | 232 |
| RENAULT | 16.75 | 264 |
| MINI | 12.00 | 259 |
| FIAT | 11.60 | 81 |
| KIA | 11.13 | 631 |
| PEUGEOT | 11.10 | 501 |
| HYUNDAI | 9.80 | 254 |
| NISSAN | 9.68 | 282 |
[source: SMMT, New AutoMotive]
