The UK is just months away from the milestone of having a million fully electric cars on its roads for the first time.

There were nearly 900,000 battery electric vehicles (BEVs) on UK roads in October 2023

The new car experts at Cap HPI have revealed there were nearly 900,000 battery electric vehicles (BEVs) on UK roads in October 2023 – and they reckon we’ll pass the magic one-million figure by February 2024.

That’s much earlier than the previous estimate of August next year and would come less than two years after the number of electric cars sold in the UK surpassed half a million, which took place in June 2022.

Latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show nearly 24,000 fully electric cars were registered in October – up 20.1% on the same month last year and now taking a 15.6% market share.

That’s despite the PM’s announcement in September of a five-year delay to the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars and vans, which isn’t expected to actually have much effect now the ZEV mandate has been confirmed to start on 1 January 2024. This will implement increasingly stringent EV sales targets for car and van makers as a percentage of their overall registrations.

However, concerns continue to mount over private driver demand for EVs. Fleets benefit from “compelling” tax incentives including low Benefit-in-Kind ratings and high write-down allowances.

But such incentives are lacking for private drivers following the end of the Plug-in Car Grant and many BEVs remain unaffordable, particularly during the current cost-of-living crisis, despite the ever-increasing choice of BEVs now offered by manufacturers. This has prompted growing calls for incentives to support the adoption of electric vehicles among private drivers.

Matthew Freeman, managing consultant at Cap HPI, commented: “BEV registrations are being driven mainly by the fleet sector with private registrations accounting for less than one in four new BEVs this year. This highlights the requirement for further incentivisation for private drivers.”