A second month of weakened EV figures according to the latest numbers from car industry body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. 

The overall car market was up 7.2% in a month that is traditionally quite quiet ahead of the March number plate change. While EVs were up 2.8% on the same month last year, this represented the second month in a row where electric vehicles’ share of the market shrank, EVs making up just under a quarter of the new car market. 

A familiar sight at the top of the sales tables, though – the Ford Puma remains Britain's favourite car. 

The SMMT said that the slightly weakened electric numbers were partly the result of a strong start to 2025 as buyers sought to avoid April’s tax changes to EVs, and that EV demand was still slightly down after a strong end to 2025 as carmakers offered discounts to hit their ZEV mandate targets. 

PHEVs showed the strongest growth, up 43.5% on February 2025, which meant that more than a third of cars sold last month had a plug. (Check out our guide on PHEVs versus BEVs here...)

The SMMT has said that the EV sales figures show the government needs to intervene to weaken the demands of the zero emission vehicle mandate, which ramps up electric vehicle sales year by year. 

The industry body thinks that manufacturers are going to find it tough to meet the 33% EV sales that the rules will demand of them this year, but data firm New Automotive says that with incentives for plug-in hybrid sales within the rules the target is in practice going to be more like 19% for 2026, so we could still see carmakers easing off electric vehicle sales. 

SMMT CEO Mike Hawes said: “Given sales of new pure petrol and diesel cars are currently required to end in less than four years, EV uptake must accelerate rapidly. Manufacturers have committed monumental investment to drive demand but such costs cannot be sustained indefinitely, making a review of the transition an urgent priority to ensure ambition matches natural demand.”

Electrifying founder Ginny Buckley thinks that drivers are going to need more encouragement from the government with the looming threat of pay per mile EV taxes coming in 2028. “Research by Electrifying.com and the AA of over 11,000 non-EV drivers shows how fragile consumer confidence still is. More than half said the idea of pay-per-mile road charging would make them less likely to go electric. 

“The worst thing ministers could do now is send mixed signals on EV running costs. The direction of travel is clear: drivers want cheaper running costs and greater energy security. Policy should reinforce that shift towards fully electric vehicles, not slowing it down.”