ULEVs take bigger slice of UK car market
Plug-in vehicles are growing in popularity among British car buyers according to ULEV campaigner Go Ultra Low, Automotive Management online reports.
Between January and September this year, UK motorists bought as many as 20,992 plug-in cars – a rise of 138.5% compared with 2014.
A greater choice of models is fuelling demand, says the organisation – more than 27 pure electric or plug-in hybrid cars are now available to UK purchasers, ranging from high-performance sports cars to family runarounds.
So far, there have been 14,041 registrations of plug-in hybrid models, an increase of 226.5% against the same period in 2014.
What's more, registrations of ultra low emission vehicles have increased their market share. This has reached more than 1% for the year so far, up from 0.44% last year.
By 2020, the Government expects 5% of new car registrations (around 100,000 units) to be ultra low emission.
Motorists want to achieve maximum miles for the lowest cost, while minimising emissions and environmental impact, explained Poppy Welch, head of Go Ultra Low.
Currently, the most popular models are Mitsubishi's Outlander PHEV, which has sold 9,303 of the flagship model since the start of the year; Nissan's all-electric Leaf, which clocked up 4,285 registrations; and BMW's i3, which nearly doubled its tally with 1,564 registrations.Sales figures are unknown for the Tesla Model S, but this is expected to be within the top 10 ULEVs.
