EVs At 35.2% Share In The UK – Tesla Leading BEV Brand

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The first quarter of 2026 saw plugin EVs at 35.2% share in the UK, up from 30.0% in Q1 2025. BEV share grew modestly year on year (YoY), whilst PHEV grew more. Overall Q1 auto volume was 614,854 units, up some 6% YoY. Tesla was the best-selling BEV brand in Q1.

2026 Q1 auto sales saw combined plugin EVs at 35.2% share in the UK, with full electrics (BEVs) at 22.4% and plugin hybrids (PHEVs) at 12.8%. These figures compare YoY against 30.0% combined, 20.7% BEVs and 9.2% PHEVs.

In volume terms, Q1’s BEV sales were up 14.5% YoY, to 137,614 units. PHEVs were up even more, by 46.5% to 78,666 units.

The UK ZEV mandate continues to operate. As a reminder, the 2025 headline target of “28%” was successfully met – once various loopholes and “flexibilities” were taken into account. The ZEV headline target for 2026 now steps up to “33%”, and then to “38%” and “52%” in 2027 and 2028.

With the loopholes and fudges, this will mean the average manufacturer aiming for roughly 28% BEV share this year, and 32% next year. Both of these are easily achievable, but the mandate for 2026 is already being accompanied by much whining and complaining from the SMMT, the UK lobby of the legacy auto brands.

Whilst overall market volume was up, thanks mainly to growth in PHEVs and BEVs, diesel sales were down some 10% YoY, and petrol sales were down 3.5% YoY. Their combined market share is now 50.0% and will continue to shrink in coming quarters.

Best-Selling BEV Brands

The best-selling Q1 BEV brand in the UK was Tesla, although its market share slipped to 8.7% from Q1 2025’s 10.2%.

The runner up was Ford, with 7.7% share, largely carried by the Puma and Explorer models. BYD came in third, with 7.0% share.

Tesla’s trimmed market share wasn’t so much due to falling volumes (they fell just 3.7% YoY), but because the combined others grew their sales relatively strongly. Ford and BYD, in particular, each roughly doubled their volume YoY.

Ford only ranked 9th at this point in 2025, and has done well to climb to 2nd this time around. This is largely because of the success of the new Puma model which was released in Q2 2025, and went into high volume from Q3 onwards. From the limited data, the new Puma appears to have been the 4th best selling BEV model in Q1.

Likewise BYD climbed from 10th spot a year ago, to 3rd spot now, a great result, built on a wide variety of models and price points. The brand has 7 different BEV models each selling at least ~500 units (or more) per quarter.

Skoda and Renault also saw decent YoY growth in volume (around 1.7x), and Kia wasn’t far behind with roughly 1.5x growth.

The biggest year-on-year relative growth was seen by Leapmotor, albeit from a low baseline, and the brand has now entered the top 20, in 19th spot. Leapmotor grew volume to around 3,000 units in Q1 2026, from just a couple of hundred units at this point in 2025.

Omoda and Jaecoo brands are also ones to watch, both currently just outside the top 20.

Outlook

The UK’s ZEV mandate, plus the 2025 reintroduction of modest government purchase incentives for BEVs, mean BEV will continue on a decent growth trajectory in 2026.

The overall UK economy remains lacklustre, showing a modest 1.1% YoY GDP growth in Q1 2026.  Headline inflation stood at 3.3% as of the end of Q1, from 3.4% as of Q4 end. Interest rates have been flat at 3.75% since mid December. Manufacturing PMI stood at around 51 points at the end of Q1, up from 50.5 at end of Q4.

What do you expect to see this year from the UK auto market? Which brands will continue to grow BEV share, and which will decline? Please share your perspective in the discussion below.