The figures from the SMMT show that the number of cars on UK roads has risen by 124,393 units to a total of 35,148,045, which marks a return the number of cars on the road seen in 2019. The overall number of vehicles has risen to a record 40,723,974 units as supply shortages begin to ease and scrappage levels decline.
Businesses are also joining in the post-pandemic recovery, with 615,570 HGVs and 4,887,593 vans in service, up 1.9% and 1.7% respectively. Britain’s HGV parc is now at record levels, while vans make up almost one in eight vehicles in use, the largest proportion ever recorded.
While the overall increase in vehicles on the road is good news for the industry, the UK’s bus and coach fleet has fallen by -2.3% to 72,766 vehicles, the lowest since records began, with 16,608 going out of service over the last decade.
Furthermore, over one in four buses have been in use for more than 15 years, indicating the need for support to encourage operators to invest in the latest zero-emission buses, given the essential role these vehicles play in providing mobility for millions of people and in road transport decarbonisation.
Despite the increase in the number of vehicles, average car and van CO2 emissions have fallen by -1.6%, thanks to the influx of new lower and zero-emission models. One in 32 cars driving in Britain now comes with a plug, amounting to 1,089,241 vehicles, which is a rise of more than half over the last year, reaching 3.1% of the parc.
Ownership of electric commercial vehicles has also risen, with vans up by 67.3% and buses and coaches increasing by 34.9%. The number of zero-emission trucks has almost trebled since last year.
However, there is still a lag in public charge point rollout behind EV uptake, with only one standard public charger for every 36 plug-in cars on the road, down from 31 in 2021, warns SMMT.
The need for investment is even more intense for other road transport sectors as these existing charge points may not be suitably located or sized to serve van operators, and there are no dedicated HGV charging points on the UK’s strategic road network.
Deployment of infrastructure appropriate for commercial vehicles would encourage the uptake of the latest electric vehicles, accelerate fleet renewal to take older units off the road and help reduce the UK’s carbon footprint, stresses the organisation.
“After two tough years, Britain is on the road to recovery with the first growth in car ownership since the pandemic – while vans and trucks also continue to deliver for business and society in ever greater numbers. Better still, we are driving Britain towards a net zero future with more than a million zero emission vehicles now on the road and cutting carbon. With exciting new technologies and models fuelling our appetite to get back behind the wheel, now is the time to commit to greater investment in infrastructure and incentives, to speed up a switch to carbon-free mobility that is accessible to all,” said SMMT Chief Executive Mike Hawes.
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