July saw ‘worrying growth’ in new hybrid vehicles

There was a “worrying growth” in the number of new hybrid vehicles registered in July this year, a transport research group has warned.

Publishing its latest data derived from the DVLA and DVSA, New Automotive also predicts that the share of the market occupied by petrol vehicles will fall below 50 per cent before the end of this year, having dropped from around two thirds in July 2020 to just 53 per cent last month.

The group said there were more than 10,000 new fully electric cars registered in July 2021, the highest share of the market so far this year. Full EVs accounted for 9 per cent of the market overall.

However New Automotive said hybrids accounted for 28 per cent of the new car market share in July, double that of July 2020, which head of policy Ben Nelmes described as “worrying”.

Nelmes reiterated the company’s call for the government to adopt a system similar to that of the US state of California which encourages car companies to produce full EVs rather than hybrids.

He said: “July’s new car registrations data is further evidence of the quiet revolution that is taking place in the UK car market. In July 2019, 96 per cent of new cars were either petrol or diesel. Now, just over half of new cars bought are petrol, and we expect diesel cars to become a niche part of the market by the end of the year.

“There is much to welcome in July’s data. We see British brands emerging as EV leaders – two in every five Jaguars bought in July 2021 were fully electric.

“But we also see a continued and worrying growth in hybrid sales. Hybrids are not net zero vehicles, and we are concerned that customers are paying over the odds for a technology that will soon be outdated.

“This is further evidence that the UK needs a strong California-style system that enables people to access the benefits of fully electric vehicles.”