EV foyer group says ‘skewed’ gross sales knowledge is downplaying true demand
- SMMT had suggested that private diesel sales are outstripping EVs
- There is one major flaw in how one type of EV registration is categorised
An electric car lobby group has criticised Britain’s leading motor industry trade body for publishing ‘skewed’ sales data that appears to suggest diesel cars are outselling EVs.
Electric Vehicles UK, a campaign group formed to dispel ‘myths and lies’ around the electric car market, said the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders is downplaying the level of private demand for EVs by not presenting accurate registrations figures.
It comes just days after the SMMT and 13 vehicle manufacturers wrote to the Chancellor calling for a fresh wave of incentives in the Budget to slash the price of new EVs in an effort to invigorate sales.
EV campaigners have said auto trade body sales data published monthly does not show the true demand for electric cars among private buyers
In its September registrations update, the SMMT said: ‘Private battery electric vehicle demand rose, up 3.6 per cent after unprecedented manufacturer discounting, but this was equivalent to just 410 additional registrations.
‘Consumer demand for diesel grew at a faster rate, increasing 17.1 per cent in September, a volume uplift of 1,367 units.’
It later added: ‘Year-to-date private BEV [Battery Electric Vehicle] demand remains down 6.3 per cent – underlining the scale of the challenge involved in moving the mass market to meet the mandated targets that were conceived in very different economic, geopolitical and market conditions.
‘Previous assumptions of a market delivering steady BEV growth, cheaper and plentiful raw materials, affordable energy and low interest rates have not come to fruition, with the upfront cost of BEV models remaining stubbornly high.’
While the SMMT’s statements would indicate that private demand for EVs is accelerating slower than diesel, the industry representative has also openly admitted that how it reports sales data does not present the full picture of private battery car appetite.
The problem lies with how registrations are grouped into ‘private’, ‘fleet’ and ‘business’ sales – the three types of vehicle sales recorded by the SMMT.
In its September registrations update, the SMMT said that consumer demand for new diesel cars ‘grew at a faster rate’ than for petrol models
The major driving forces behind today’s electric car registrations is ‘salary sacrifice’ schemes.
An EV salary sacrifice scheme is an arrangement where an employee agrees to give up part of their pre-tax salary in exchange for their employer leasing an EV for them.
The employer then deducts the monthly cost of the lease from the employee’s salary, which becomes are far more affordable option to switch to a battery car.
However, these sales, despite being decisions made by private consumers, are categorised as fleet registrations rather than ‘private’ driver purchases.
Responding to an accusation of using misrepresentative data, the SMMT’s official X channel said: ‘There’s no national register of salary sacrifice vehicles, so while these cars would come under fleet registrations, there’s no way to accurately measure the numbers.’
Electric Vehicles UK says the true scale of EV demand is showcased in numbers around total sales across private, fleet and business markets.
Records show that, across all three registration avenues in September, EVs are up 24 per cent to a monthly record of over 56,300 units. This accounts for one in five (20 per cent) of all new models entering the road last month.
In comparison, diesel sales hit an all-time low, falling a further 7 per cent year-on-year with just 17,500 oil burners purchased, which represents around only one in 16 (6.4 per cent) new cars.
As the SMMT’s registrations data shows, sales of diesel cars were down 7.1% in September and are back by 12% as a whole in 2024
The EV lobby group said that the trade body’s presentation of the data is a ‘misrepresentation of the figures which ignores the progress car makers have made, is putting off consumers from switching to EVs and giving policymakers the impression that the transition isn’t working’.
Andy Palmer, former boss at Aston Martin and Nissan (where he launched the first UK-assembled volume-selling EV, the Leaf) and now a spokesperson on behalf of Electric Vehicles UK, said: ‘The September figures show the UK electric vehicle market is now growing faster than in either France or Germany.
‘Diesel market share is down on the month while battery electric, hybrid and plug-in-hybrid registrations are all up.’
Dan Caesar, CEO of EVUK, added: ‘That the September statistics update from the SMMT – which should have been a moment of celebration with a record volume of EVs sold in the UK – was recast using skewed stats as a victory for diesel cars in a worrying trend in reporting.’
Mike Hawes, chief executive of the trade industry body, has said that ‘unsustainable’ industry-led price-cutting to promote the sales of electric cars had been propping up the EV market in 2024.
He added: ‘Despite this support the market is still not moving at the pace industry, government and society needs.
‘The glaring lack of government support for the private buyer is constraining demand such that other older and more polluting technologies continue to outstrip electric cars. This is no ‘victory’.’
Also commenting on the SMMT’s presentation of private EV sales, Colin Walker, head of transport at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said any notion of them being in decline was ‘completely false’ and ‘based on some heavily cherry-picked data’.
Ben Nelmes, chief executive at independent transport research organisation New AutoMotive, described September’s EV market as ‘fizzing with life’.
He added: ‘Electric car registrations grew by almost a quarter in September, with one in five new cars an EV. It is great to see more people than ever before switching to cleaner, cheaper driving.
‘Sensible government policy is driving an emerging great British success story, with electric car registrations here outperforming the rest of Europe.
‘We are in a global race to get EVs on the roads and Britain is pulling into the fast lane.’
Despite the upbeat outlook on EV demand, the SMMT and bosses from 13 major manufacturers have recently written to the Chancellor pleading for a fresh wave of incentives to turbocharge electric car sales.
In a letter to Rachel Reeves ahead of the Budget, car giants including BMW, Ford, Toyota and Volkswagen said government targets are putting too much pressure on the industry at a time when private EV demand is wavering.
Executives called for the introduction of new subsidies to boost sales as many car firms are falling behind the Government’s binding Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Mandate requirements.
