C-Zero.info: With the recent announcement from OLEV that 11,260 claims have been made through the Plug-in Car Grant scheme, the total number of electric cars and vans in the UK now exceeds 13,000 vehicles for the first time.
The Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) has also published figures which show that, as of30 June 2014, 637 claims have been made through the Plug-in Van Grant scheme.
Taken together with 1,379 electric cars and vans which are not eligible for the Plug-in Grant scheme, but are nevertheless fully electric, the total UK light-duty electric fleet will number 13,276 in the coming weeks as vehicles are delivered and formally registered for use on UK roads.
Another indicator that the electric market is growing in strength is the number of fully electric and plug-in hybrid models available in the UK. While only 9 EVs were available for the major manufacturers in 2011, this increased to 18models in 2013, and now stands at 21 high-quality, fully crash tested cars and vans with more models due for launch in 2014 and 2015.
Dr Ben Lane, Director of Next Green Car said: “The EV market continues to grow exponentially in the UK as elsewhere, demonstrating that UK car buyers are fully embracing the EV revolution. With the continuing investment from manufacturers the number of electric models continues to increase, making the future EV market look very secure.”
As the chart of registered models shows, the Nissan LEAF continues to be the UK market leader, with at least 3,845 vehicles registered in the UK and representing over a third of all EV sales in the UK. In second and third places are two plug-in hybrids, the Toyota Prius PHEV(with 1,089 registrations) and the Vauxhall Ampera (767 vehicles).
However, recent 2014 entrants such as the BMW i3 and the Renault ZOE are already selling well with 513 and 462 sales respectively; indeed, the ZOE is now the most popular EV across Europe as a whole (in 2013). Yet to make their mark in the statistics due to their very recent launches, the Tesla Model S and Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV are also expected to do well in the UK during the remainder of 2014.
In a press release made shortly after the OLEV announcement, Mitsubishi said that in July theOutlander PHEV outsold all other vehicles which qualified for the governments Plug-in Car Grant, accounting for 43% of successful applications.
