The number of electric cars registered in the UK rose by a third last month compared to May 2025, but uptake remains significantly below mandatory government targets.
A total of 160,662 new cars found homes last month, with 43,931 of those running on batteries alone, for a 27.3% EV market share. This was 34.2% up on the 32,738 electric cars registered in May 2025, but remains some way off the 33% proportion of registrations demanded by ministers in 2026.
With government grants, company-car tax breaks and manufacturer discounts all being applied to EVs, this means that despite every available lever bring pulled, consumers remain wedded to traditional and hybrid powertrains, with more than seven in 10 new cars needing to use a petrol or diesel pump based on May’s figures.
So far this year, 27.4% of registrations have comprised petrol/diesel-electric hybrids and 45.9 pure petrol or diesel cars, compared to just 23.9% pure electrics, a 10% miss on the mandatory 2026 target,.
Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, which compiled the figures, said that while “the EV transition is still progressing”, consumer preference “still lags behind even today’s targets, let alone the ambition set out in the latest Carbon Budget [which requires an 87% reduction in emissions from 2038 to 2042 against 1990 levels]”
Hawes added that the automotive industry “shares the long-term ambition”, but warned: “The pathway to Net Zero must be credible. It cannot come at the cost of lost competitiveness and deindustrialisation. A review of the transition is now urgent to ensure ambition matches market realities and we have a sustainable path to road transport decarbonisation.”
