The number of vehicles in use on UK roads has hit a new high of nearly 42 million, reveals data from trade body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
In total, the number of cars reached a record high of more than 36 million. This is the third consecutive year of growth, and the second-biggest rise in car volumes since 2016.
The SMMT says this reflects both last year’s expansion of the new car market, to 1.953 million cars, and the rise in electric vehicles, which made up nearly one in five sales last year.
There are now more than 1.3 million EVs being driven on UK roads, according for 3.7 percent of all cars in use.
Vans that can
Continuing the growth in UK vehicle numbers, vans also multiplied to record levels. They now account for more than 5.1 million vehicles on Britain’s roads.
Notably, more than one million vans have been added in the past decade alone. This reflects the rise in home delivery services.
Both heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) and bus and coach volumes fell slightly, by 0.1 percent, to around 625,000 and just under 72,000 respectively.
One in 20 buses on UK roads is now electric, with electric vans making up 1.6 percent of the British fleet. However, less than 0.1 percent of trucks is currently an EV.
This one’s a keeper
SMMT figures also revealed motorists are holding onto their cars for much longer. The average age of a car on the road is now 9.5 years old – much older than the eight-year-old average in 2019.
More than two in five cars on UK roads have been in use for more than a decade. This means they predate the introduction of Euro 6 emissions technology that, the SMMT says, has done so much to improve air quality.
“Drivers need more incentives and greater confidence in infrastructure investment if we are to replace the high volumes of older high-emission cars with zero-emission alternatives,” said SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes. “There is scope to push environmental improvements much faster.”
The SMMT data also revealed that petrol overwhelmingly remains the most popular fuel type, making up 58.2 percent of cars on our roads.
Notably, diesel cars are still on 32.1 percent, with hybrids, EVs and plug-in hybrids on 4.0 percent, 3.7 percent and 2.0 percent respectively.
The most popular type of car is the supermini (11.8 million examples), followed by family hatchbacks (9.5 million) and then SUVs (6.1 million).
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