Sales of electric and plug-in hybrid cars have overtaken petrol-only registrations for the first time, in a month that also saw China’s big three exporters capture one in seven of all new cars sold in the UK.
June’s figures mark a watershed for the British motor trade. After a spring of record pump prices and with electric car prices falling in an increasingly crowded marketplace, registrations of zero-emission electric vehicles rose 35 per cent to almost 63,950, giving battery-powered cars 30 per cent of the market.
Plug-in hybrids, which run primarily on battery power with a petrol engine in reserve, added a further 26,702 sales, up 25 per cent year on year, for a 12.5 per cent share. Between them, the two plug-in categories comfortably outsold pure petrol cars, whose 84,541 registrations pushed their market share below 40 per cent for the first time, to 39.7 per cent.
The balance was made up of self-charging hybrids, on 14 per cent, and diesel, which continues its chronic decline in the wake of environmental and regulatory clampdowns, at just 3.8 per cent of new sales, according to industry figures compiled by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.
The month’s other defining trend was the pace at which Chinese manufacturers are winning British buyers across every fuel type, with pricing that undercuts the legacy carmakers. In a market of more than 213,000 registrations, up 11.4 per cent, the three biggest Chinese exporters sold over 30,000 vehicles between them, taking more than 14 per cent of the market.
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