Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on trends in the levels of sales of (a) new cars and (b) electric vehicles.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) provide monthly statistics on the registration of new vehicles in the UK. The latest statistics were issued on 6 January 2021 and are summarised as follows:

The SMMT’s statistics for new car registrations for 2020 show the UK new car market fell by -29.4% to 1.63m cars compared with 2.31m cars in 2019. This is consistent with the impact of COVID restrictions on sales in other major car markets in Europe. Within the UK market, Electric Vehicle (EV) car sales continue to grow and accounted for 17.5% of the 2020 new car market: Battery Electric Vehicle sales were up 186% to 108,205; Plug in Hybrid Vehicle sales were up 91% to 66,877; and full hybrids were up 12% to 110,117. Mild hybrid sales are also growing, accounting for 13% of petrol and diesel registrations.

The Department understands that these are challenging times for the automotive sector and manufacturers in general. The Government has been working closely with key industry stakeholders throughout the pandemic to understand how we can support the resilience and continued competitiveness of UK automotive manufacturing at this time.