New EVs push up February stats

EV registrations have jumped by 1478, climbing from 38,120 in January to nearly 40,000 (39,598) last month.

That’s well over the 959-increase recorded in January compared with December last year when EVs surged to 37,156 – 1591 more than November’s 35,565 – amid one of the top EV sales months.

So that makes February a good month for EV sales as well, expected by many EV dealers, and in spite of the growing impact of Omicron.

New light pure electrics were up 399 in February – from 646 in January to 1045 last month, mainly the result of new models and shipments of Tesla Model 3s encouraged by the Government’s EV incentives and rising fuel prices.

Used light EVs were up 131 – from 315 in January to 446 in February.

Commercial EV registrations dropped from about 16 in January to just five in February.

It will be interesting to see whether the Russia-Ukraine war has an impact on March EV registrations, mainly because of global fuel issues and restrictions on Russia.

Semi-conductor shortages have persisted into the early part of this year but should begin to ease.

And just how the finalised Clean Car package (which includes the ‘fee’ for high-emission vehicles part of the ‘feebate’ scheme) will affect EV sales may be known after its planned April 1 introduction.

By all accounts it should promote even more EV registrations, depending on supply.

The MoT has a new weekly EV analysis as well as its monthly registration updates.

Read EV dealers’ reaction and comments in our upcoming March EVs and Beyond magazine.