EVs take a 24.7% share in Britain – BMW leading battery-electric brand

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Plug-in EVs saw an increase in the April car market 24.7% share in Great Britain, compared to 21.9% year-on-year. Volume growth was modest for battery electric vehicles, and significant for plug-in hybrid EVs. The total auto volume was 134,274 units, up just 1% year-on-year, and remains well below pre-2020 standards. Britain's largest battery-electric car brand in April was BMW.

In April sales, combined plug-in EVs took a 24.7% share in Britain, with all-electrics (BEVs) taking 16.9% and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) 7.8% got. These build on shares from a year ago 21.9% combined, with 15.4%BEV and 6.5% PHEV.

In terms of actual volumes, BEV numbers increased by a modest 10.7% year-on-year 22,717 units. PHEVs saw faster volume growth of 22.1% year-on-year 10,493 units.

April was in line with the so-far year-on-year BEV volume growth in 2024, which stands at 10.6%. This is well below the average of 83% volume growth in 2021 and 40% in 2022. The slowdown had already started in 2023, with full-year volume growth of 17.8%. More on the unimpressive pace of UK EV growth in the paragraphs below.

Meanwhile, HEV sales in April saw average volume growth of 16.7% year-on-year, better than BEV but not as strong as PHEV. The share of diesel (including MHEV) fell by 25% year-on-year 8,649 units. The share of petrol (including MHEV) fell by 3% to 74,877 units.

Best-selling BEV brands

The best-selling BEV brand in Britain in April was BMW, with 13.2% of the UK BEV market, regaining the lead it last held in January. BMW has a strong lead over others, with places two, three and four, with Mercedes, MG and Audi competing closely.

BMW's best-selling BEV was the BMW i4, which sold more than 1,500 units in April, well ahead of the BMW iX1 with around 450 units.

Volvo is slowly climbing the rankings, thanks to strong sales of the new EX30, of which around 700 units were sold this month.

In terms of new models, the Mini Countryman seems to have made its debut in April, with just over 50 units. Let's see how popular it becomes in the brand's home market. The Smart #3 debuted in March with approximately 10 units and expanded to 18 units in April.

Now let's take a look at the following three-month rankings:

Tesla still has a significant lead over second-place BMW, which itself has a long lead over third-place Mercedes. Tesla and BMW have swapped places since the previous period (November to January).

Audi dropped two places and ended up in 5th place. It was overtaken by both Mercedes and MG. The Volkswagen brand fell 5 places, from 6th to 11th.

Both Porsche and Mini had big falls, from 12th to 25th (Porsche) and from 11th to 29th (Mini). The reason is the same in both cases: their existing models are about to be replaced (or are in the process of being replaced) by significantly technologically updated models. Once production of these new models is ramped up, these brands are likely to recover their previous positions.

Leaders and laggards

As mentioned in the market trends discussion at the top of this report, overall electric vehicle sales in 2024 are still “positive” year-over-year, in terms of slowly growing volumes by 10.6% (while combustion-only powertrains to lose). But let's face it, Britain's pace of transition to BEV (as well as other major European markets and the US and Japan), has become noticeable not impressivecompared to what we saw in 2021 and 2022.

Of battery packs now cost less than $70 per kWhThere's no reason why BEVs in most segments now, around the world, aren't competing on sticker prices with ICE peers, as they do in China.

Between 2019 and 2020, Europe's pace of transition accelerated (with a combined EV share from 3.6% to 11%) and overtook China (which went from 5.5% to 6.3%). Europe continued to lead in 2021 (19% share vs. China's 15% share). But since then, China has continued to grow at a high rate: 30% in 2022 and 37% in 2023. Europe, including Great Britain, has now entered the slow road. In 2022, Europe had a combined share of 23%, and 2023 came to 24% – hardly growing!

The Chinese car market is now (during the first half of 2024) trending to exceed a combined plug-in share of 50%, following growing EV sales at the expected rate. What rate is that? That's the typical “technology adoption curve” that comes with it investment in the future, increases, learning feedback loopsAnd cost improvements. These positive reinforcement factors have historically always accompanied the adoption of new technology, whether it is the technology of early 20th century cars, or refrigerators, TVs or smartphones. We at CleanTechnica often discussed the historical pattern of 'technology adoption curves'.

In the case of electric vehicle adoption in Britain, some car brands are contributing much more than others. Several car brands that have strong car sales in Britain have done so alone a very weak percentage of BEVs in their total turnover.

The largest BEV laggards visible in the April data are (with approximate percentages); Land Rover at 0% BEV, Suzuki also at 0%, Honda at 3%, Ford 7%, Fiat 7%, Mazda 7%, Volkswagen 7%, Renault 9%, Peugeot 11%, Toyota 11%, Skoda 12%, Mini 12% and Lemon 15%. It's a sad state of affairs when the Volkswagen brand is doing worse than the infamous laggard Toyota!

All other major brands (in order of %; Kia, Audi, Vauxhall, Nissan, Hyundai, Mercedes) are minimal slightly ahead of the market average BEV share (Kia), or quite ahead (Mercedes).

Standout performers include MG with 34% BEV, Volvo with 36% and BMW with 38%. Tesla, Polestar, BYD, Smart and Ora, only sell BEVs, on the British market.

What's the takeaway here? The laggards are all older European, Japanese or American manufacturers. Remember when Janet Yellen – who regularly claims to be concerned about climate change – recently went to China and had the arrogance to lecture her hosts about China having “overcapacity” in electric vehicle production? Now many traditional media repeat that absurd reverse story like an obedient choir. 'Overcapacity in CleanTech' is like complaining about 'too many firefighters in a blazing fire'.

The Korean brands are significantly outperforming the “biggest BEV laggards” mentioned above in the UK market, along with a few others. Although the Korean brands also come from ICE roots, they are now taking the EV transition seriously – and they are doing it well.

The leading EV brands enabling the transition in Britain are Tesla, Euro-Chinese partnerships (MG, Volvo, Polestar, Smart), Chinese brands (BYD, Ora, among others) and an old 'late starter' that is now does good'. ” – BMW. These are all cowardly troublemakers of 'overcapacity'. Damn it!

Outlook

In addition to the flat car market on an annual basis, the British economy remains in recession according to the latest data (Q4 2023). Inflation is 3.2% and interest is 5.25%. After a brief increase in March, the manufacturing PMI turned negative again in April at 49.1 points.

The British car industry lobby, That's what the SMMT says “the latest market outlook shows declining share for BEVs, despite a growing overall new car market… BEV volumes for this year have been revised downwards by -5.2%, with an expected market share now at 19.8%, significantly below the government target of 22% per year. manufacturer under the Vehicle Emissions Trading Scheme.”

What do you think of the pace of the EV transition in Britain? Join the conversation below.