Electric cars hit 32% of UK new-car sales, leaving petrol just 5.2 points ahead

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders put battery electric vehicles at 32% of the United Kingdom’s new car registrations in October, bringing them closer to gas-powered models.

Just 5.2 percentage points separated petrol from battery electric cars — their smallest gap to date, Electrek reported.

Here’s what to know

October’s new car registrations in the UK totaled 152,730, up 5.4% from October 2025, according to Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders data.

Plug-in hybrids recorded 22,898 registrations, up 30.1%, while battery-electric registrations rose 32.7% to 48,858.

October extended the overall market’s run of rising registrations to 11 consecutive months. The two plug-in categories supplied all of that growth.

Conventional hybrids and diesel vehicles declined, with registrations down 5% and 15.9% respectively.

Gas-powered cars finished with a 37.2% market share after registrations dropped 11.6% to 56,876.

More background

The share of gas car registrations fell from 47.2% to 41.1% between the first 10 months of 2025 and the same period in 2026.

Battery electric vehicles, meanwhile, reached a 26.6% share, with SMMT recording 503,805 registrations from January through October 2026 — up 30.4%.

Mild hybrids count toward petrol or diesel in SMMT’s headline categories.

Using monthly fuel-type figures, Electrek examined changes since March 2024, when battery electric vehicles represented 15.2% of registrations, while gas cars accounted for 55.9%.

For battery electric vehicles, Electrek calculated an average gain of about 0.36 percentage points per month along a linear trend.

Gas moved in the opposite direction, losing roughly half a percentage point monthly. A market share of roughly one-third apiece is where those two trend lines meet.

Projecting them forward suggests that crossover will occur around August 2027.

What’s being done?

That crossover could arrive earlier because automakers are under pressure to comply with the UK’s zero-emission vehicle mandate.

For manufacturers, December is an opportunity to close the gap to their targets by pushing electric car volumes. Battery electric market share tends to spike in that month.

Across the five months ending in October 2026, battery electric market share ran about five percentage points above levels in the same period of 2025, while petrol’s was approximately seven points lower.

Previous December results put battery electric vehicles at 31% in 2024 and 32.2% in 2025.

Gas would finish December at roughly 32%, behind battery electric vehicles at about 37%, if those year-over-year shifts hold.

A combined battery electric share of approximately 31% for November and December would align with SMMT’s full-year forecast of 27.2%. That outlook makes the timing of a crossover less certain.

August already brought battery electric vehicles a lead over every other individual powertrain category under an alternative classification, according to Electrek. That approach places mild hybrids with hybrids rather than with petrol or diesel.

The potential December milestone is a first lead over petrol in SMMT’s headline figures, even with mild hybrids included.

Where can I learn more?

The UK isn’t the only market where electric cars are gaining ground on gas. These stories cover electric car gains in Britain and Ireland and declining gas-only sales worldwide.

• In the UK, battery EVs reached 28.3% of September sales as gas lost ground.

• In Europe, EVs overtook gas and diesel, leaving the U.S. as the biggest holdout.

• In Ireland, EVs reached 28% of new car licenses after September registrations jumped 54%.

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