Electric cars have taken yet another record share of the market in June, representing 30% of new cars sold in the month. Between EVs and plug-in hybrids, cars with plugs outsold purely petrol driven cars by over 15,000 units. 

June put in its best performance since 2019, though still a way off its 2015 glory days. The overall market was up more than 11% in June over the same month the previous year, driven by EV sales. Nearly 64,000 electric cars were registered during the month. 

The bestselling cars for June were the Tesla Model Y and Model 3, which enjoyed a bumper month of deliveries after difficulties with the government’s Vehicle Certification Agency meant the cars were piling up around the country unable to be delivered. The company recently celebrated its 300,000th sale in the UK but has now sailed past that figure. 

Mike Hawes, boss of industry body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders that compiles and releases the data, says the record setting performance still isn’t good enough, and he’s calling for the government to water down the zero emission vehicle mandate that requires carmakers to sell a proportion of EVs. 

“Manufacturers are investing billions developing and bringing the vehicles to market – and spending billions more to sell them, yet the market is still not moving fast enough,” he said. 

“Reforming the mandate now is essential not just to keep the transition on track but to protect the UK’s competitiveness, attract investment and safeguard jobs.”

A recent report by the UK’s Climate Change Committee said that meeting the targets was doable if we followed the example of northern European states like Denmark, but that the country was starting to lag behind in key areas.