UK registrations of new zero-emission vehicles increased 36.9% year on year during the second quarter of 2026 as battery-electric adoption continued to expand across cars and light commercial vehicles.
Department for Transport figures show 161,000 zero-emission vehicles were registered for the first time between April and June. Of those, approximately 147,000 were zero-emission cars, an increase of 40.5% from the same quarter of 2025.
Zero-emission cars represented 27.3% of all new car registrations during the quarter, up from 22.2% a year earlier. Road-using zero-emission light goods vehicles accounted for 10.5% of new registrations in their category, compared with 8.5% in 2025.
The wider vehicle market also grew. A total of 682,000 vehicles were registered for the first time during the quarter, 12% more than a year earlier. Car registrations rose 14%, while new heavy goods vehicle registrations declined 11.7% and buses and coaches fell 39%.
The figures show the electric transition progressing at different speeds across vehicle types. Passenger cars have achieved a substantially higher zero-emission share than vans, heavy vehicles, and motorcycles, reflecting differences in vehicle availability, operating patterns, charging needs, payload requirements, and economics.
At the end of June, the UK had 2.313 million licensed zero-emission vehicles, an increase of 30.7% year on year. They represented 5.4% of the total licensed vehicle stock.
Zero-emission cars numbered just over 2 million and represented 5.8% of licensed road-using cars. The figures underline the distinction between rapid growth in new registrations and the much slower replacement of the entire national vehicle fleet.
A car can remain on the road for many years, meaning changes in new sales take time to reshape the overall stock. Infrastructure, used-vehicle prices, battery durability, financing, insurance, and tax treatment will therefore influence the transition long after the market share of new electric vehicles has increased.
The latest official figures also sit alongside the UK zero-emission vehicle mandate, which requires manufacturers to increase the proportion of qualifying vehicles they sell over time. Recent industry data showed battery-electric registrations rising strongly while the market remained below the headline mandate trajectory.
Manufacturers can use flexibilities within the rules, so annual market share and regulatory compliance cannot be compared on a simple one-to-one basis. The difference nevertheless keeps attention on incentives, vehicle pricing, charging infrastructure, and fleet purchasing.
Business fleets play an important role because company-car taxation and predictable mileage can make electric vehicles attractive in corporate settings. Commercial vans present a different challenge where operators require long daily ranges, heavy payloads, rapid turnaround, or depot charging upgrades.
The 34.6% annual increase in new zero-emission light commercial registrations shows adoption is growing, but their 10.5% share remains well below the electric share of new cars.
The DfT figures do not establish whether the current pace will be sufficient to meet future policy targets. They do show that zero-emission registrations are expanding considerably faster than the overall vehicle market.
That growth is steadily increasing the number of electric vehicles entering private and commercial fleets, while the much smaller share of the total vehicle stock shows how much of the transition still lies ahead.
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