Last month was the busiest June for UK car dealers since the pandemic, partly because electric car sales skyrocketed – but manufacturers are still selling far too few EVs to hit the government’s targets.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) reported a significant 11.4% uptick in registrations in June, with 213,166 cars leaving forecourts – the most in the month since 2019.
The SMMT said the increase was “driven entirely by electrified vehicles”, pointing to the rapidly increasing choice of low- and zero-emission cars on sale and the ever-growing number of brands selling them.
Plug-in hybrids took a 12.5% market share over the month – up from 11.2% in June 2025 – with sales up nearly 25% at just over 21,000.
Hybrid sales were up by around 25% too, for a slightly higher market share – but the biggest increase was for electric cars, the market share of which grew from 24.8% to 30%.
That’s the highest EV market share so far this year and nearly the highest yet recorded in the UK, which the SMMT attributed partly to higher petrol and diesel prices in recent months inflating interest in plug-in powertrains.
Indeed, the prior month Renault had reported a “seismic shift” in its own customer demands off the back of increased fossil fuel prices arising from the Iran war.
The French manufacturer reported a 42% uplift in EV enquiries through its website through April, when EVs accounted for just under half of its overall registrations.
Overall, EVs have taken 25% of the market so far this year – which is their highest share yet but still some way short of the 33% mix imposed by the government’s ZEV mandate for 2026.
To achieve that result by the end of December, the SMMT said, EVs would need to make up more than 40% of sales every month – the prospects of which are dented by the fact that ICE powertrains still make up three quarters of the market.
The SMMT said flexibilities within the ZEV mandate scheme are helping manufacturers to comply, but “their value is diminishing as natural EV demand fails to grow at the pace expected”.
Despite the growing choice of EVs on sale and the increasing number of sub-£40,000 cars that qualify for a discount under the government’s Electric Car Grant, “uptake is still not rising fast enough, damaging profitability, diverting investment and weakening residual values”.
The market share of EVs is under especially intense scrutiny as the government begins to consult with car makers over the viability of its yearly ZEV mandate targets, which currently impose an 80% EV mix in 2030.
To achieve that, manufacturers would need to increase their EV mix by 220% in the space of just four years – a feat that 100% of industry leaders deem unachievable, according to the SMMT.
It was recently widely reported that the government was set to relax its 2030 target to a 50% EV mix, which would be closer in line with the natural growth curve for EV sales, but the subsequent resignation of prime minister Keir Starmer has cast uncertainty on what changes could be made and when.