After a lacklustre January, finance offers and up-front discounting on new cars in February helped the electric vehicle market to take a significantly larger share than either the previous month or the average for 2023. 

Electric car sales took nearly 18% of the new car market in February, up from 14.3% in January and higher than 2023’s mix of 16.6%. The percentage is also up on the same time last year. 

The near 22% increase in electric car sales in February, over the same month last year, was markedly ahead of the total market which was up 14.0%. Total new car sales in the first two months of 2024 are running up 10.3% on the same period in 2023. With manufacturers keen to hit their Zero Emission Mandate targets – set at a mix of 22% electric cars – huge discounts (particularly on electric cars) are helping keep the market afloat. 

Private new car sales were actually 2.6% down in February, however, car dealers Electrifying.com spoke to said it would have been far worse without the car maker incentives. February is typically a poor month for private car sales as most buyers hold off for the new registration plate in March. 

Company car sales, which account for the majority of electric cars, were up more than a quarter in February and are running more than 28% higher for the year-to-date. Plug-in hybrids also performed well. In February sales were up 29.1% and for the year-to-date they’re up 30.4% against 2023. 

Within the makes offering either all electric cars or with strong electric car model ranges, Tesla had a particularly good month and for the year with nearly 2,000 cars, equivalent to a 66.8% improvement on 2023. The Tesla Model Y also made it into the top 10 best sellers chart in eighth place. 

MG rose a whopping 244% in February against the same month last year. However, all-electric brand Polestar saw a drop of 74% for the month and is currently running down 1,407 cars after the first two month of 2024.

MG had a bumper month - again