Record number of vehicles on UK roads as car ownership rises

The total fleet rose by 1.4% to 42,549,649 vehicles in 2025, according to new Motorparc data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

The number of cars in use rose by more than half a million – or 1.4% – to 36,676,185, marking the fourth consecutive year of growth and the second largest volume increase since 2016, driven by a recovering new car market and high build quality supported by a vibrant aftermarket.¹

Van and truck volumes also grew to record levels, up by 1.4% to 5,175,598 and 0.2% to 626,566 units respectively. The UK’s bus and coach fleet, meanwhile, rose for the first time since 2021, by 0.2% to 71,300 units – although volumes remain a third (-31.3%) lower than the sector’s 103,817-unit peak in 2007.

However, last year saw the new bus market reach the highest level since 2008, with 2,523 zero emission buses entering service, indicating significant fleet renewal.

Fleet renewal across all vehicle types is helping to decarbonise road transport, as more drivers switch to low and zero carbon technologies. One in nine (4.5%) vehicles on the road are now electrified, with around one in 22 (10.9%) completely zero emission.² Zero emission trucks recorded the strongest growth, doubling to 1,056 units, although this was still less than 0.2% of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) in use. Zero emission bus volumes also rose sharply, up 65.2% to account for 8.1% of Britain’s bus fleet.

Battery electric vans grew by 34.6% to exceed 100,000 for the first time, with 113,256 now supporting businesses across the country, 2.2% of vans in service.

Meanwhile, a record 1,797,809 battery electric cars are now in use, up 34.7% on 2024 after significant uplifts in the new car market, driven by unprecedented manufacturer discounting and government incentives, and now accounting for almost 5% of the car parc.

The shift to cleaner technologies is delivering environmental benefits, with average car CO₂ emissions down by -2.9% on 2024, demonstrating the importance of fleet renewal and increasing demand for lower-emission powertrains.

However, a record 45.7% of all cars on the road have now been in service for more than a decade, up from 43.4% in 2024.

As a result, the UK’s cars are getting older, with the average age rising to 9.7 years, up from 9.5 in 2024, as motorists hold onto vehicles for longer amid cost-of-living pressures and economic uncertainty.

If road transport emissions in terms of both carbon and pollutants are to improve faster, the pace of fleet renewal must also quicken, benefitting both the climate and air quality.

Mike Hawes, SMMT Chief Executive, said, “Britain’s vehicle parc is growing with record numbers of newer zero emission vehicles on our roads driving environmental, economic and safety benefits.

“This is grounds for celebration but the pace has to quicken if ambition is to match demand with the average age of vehicles on our roads actually rising. A holistic review of the UK’s ZEV transition is essential, therefore, to ensure that every business and consumer can make the switch so that we can deliver net zero by 2050.”

Did you know?

1. Five models make up 13.7% of all cars on the road – with the Ford Fiesta still top at almost 1.4m units (3.7% of the parc), followed by the Vauxhall Corsa, Volkswagen Golf, Ford Focus and Nissan Qashqai.
2. Superminis remain the top car segment choice, with 11.9m on the road, followed by lower medium (9.5m) and dual purpose (6.7m), together accounting for 77.0% of the parc.
3. German-built cars are most dominant, representing 29.2% of the fleet, followed by British (14.0%), Spanish (10.2%), French (6.5%) and Japanese (6.1%) models. Chinese-assembled cars account for 2.2% of those in use on British roads.
4. It’s a different story for HGVs, where British-built vehicles are the most popular, at 28.0% of trucks in use – followed by German (21.3%), Italian (14.7%), Dutch (12.2%) and Swedish (10.6%) models.
5. More than half of all cars are in just three colours. Black, grey and blue together account for 55.5% of the parc, with black the most popular, covering 20.3% of vehicles. Pink is the rarest, with just 24,594 in use (0.1%).
6. For cars where the gender of the owner is identified (excluding company cars and unspecified), 40.8% are registered to women (up from 39.7% in 2014).
7. One in 10 (10.4%) of all cars are registered to a company – but more than half (55.4%) of zero emission cars are company-registered.
8. Electrification is also reshaping transmission trends. Automatic cars rose by 50.5% in 2025 to 10.5m. Manuals remained most popular, however, with 21.2m on the road after a 39.8% uplift.
9. LCVs have shown the strongest long-term growth of any vehicle type, up 29.2% since 2015. Buses and coaches are down -19.1% over the decade, but their average age has fallen to 13.1 years, from 13.4 in 2024 as passenger numbers recover and operators increase fleet investment.
10. London has the highest proportion of zero emission buses at 23.9%, with Scotland second at 9.7%. Passengers in the West Midlands are likely to have to wait the longest for a zero emission journey, with just 0.8% of the public transport fleet there running on electric or hydrogen.

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