42 Million Vehicles On UK Roads

The number of vehicles on UK roads reached an all-time high in 2024, with nearly 42 million cars, vans, buses, and trucks now in use. This is a 1.4% increase from 2023, according to data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

Cars account for over 36.1 million of that total, up by 1.3%, marking the third straight year of growth. This is thanks to a strong year for new registrations, which included nearly two million cars. Of these 2 million new registrations, almost 20% were battery electric vehicles (BEVs).

For the first time ever, BEVs broke through the one-million mark. The number of fully electric cars on the road increased by almost 39% to 1.33 million, now making up 3.7% of all cars in the UK. Including plug-in hybrids, plug-in vehicles overall account for just over 5% of all vehicles in use.

While petrol cars remain dominant at 58.2% of the car market and saw a 1% growth, diesel models continued their downward trend, falling 4.4% and now representing 32.1% of vehicles on the road.

The growing presence of newer, cleaner vehicles is making a dent in emissions. Average CO2 levels from the UK’s car fleet fell 1.6%, with company cars driving most of that improvement thanks to better incentives and a broader range of electrified models. Private vehicle emissions also dipped slightly.

However, as the pace of new car uptake slows, British motorists are holding onto their cars longer than previously. The average car age has crept up to 9.5 years, with over 43% of all cars now more than a decade old.

Vans reached a record high of 5.1 million on the road, an 80% jump since 2015, while electric vans significantly increased by 31.6%. The zero-emission bus sector also grew, with an 81.8% increase over the past year.

From SMMT

1. Superminis remain the most popular car type in use, closely followed by lower medium models. These segments account for almost three out of five cars (59.2%) on the road, making up 11,893,199 and 9,524,299 units respectively.
2. Germany was the largest source of cars on UK roads, accounting for 29.5%, with the UK (14.1%) the second and Spain (10.3%) the third. China is now the 12th largest source of cars.
3. Black remains the most popular car colour of choice, accounting for more than one in five vehicles in use today (20.2%). 
4. Automatic transmissions continue to rise as more electric vehicles reach the road, up 9.5%, while manual transmissions have fallen -2.6%.
5. For Wicked musical fans, 660,245 green and 24,863 pink cars were in use on UK roads last year.
6. While red might seem the archetypal colour for buses, white coloured buses are actually the most popular – with 19,797 in use, equal to 27.8% of the fleet.
7. London and the South East are home to the most cars (8,993,282), followed by the North West (4,007,590) and the South West (3,609,861).
8. London and the South East is the region with the most registered EVs in use (456,289).
9. Of all cars in use, 35.1% are registered to women and 51.1% to men,with a 4.0% increase in women owners over the last five years.3
10. Almost six in 10 EVs are registered to companies, compared with companies accounting for just 10.0% of the overall car parc.
11. The five most popular cars on UK roads in 2024 accounted for over 5,220,195 million in use – these are the Ford Fiesta at 1,465,402, Vauxhall Corsa at 1,035,440, Ford Focus at 1,004,153, Volkswagen Golf at 997,788 and Volkswagen Polo at 997,788.
12. Unsurprisingly, white coloured vans remain the most popular at 2,745,635 units, but for those looking for a Scooby Doo ‘mystery machine’, there are 372,993 blue vans in use.