There have been 89,379 new Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) cars and vans registered in the UK in March 2026. This is by some distance a record month, being 22% more than the same month last year and 12,615 more vehicles than September 2025, which was until now the highest month on record in terms of new BEV registrations.
As mentioned in our February report, March is always a big month for new registrations due to the new age identifier plate and the end of the tax year. It should, however, be noted that BEV cars only accounted for a 22.6% market share when compared to all other fuel types. This falls well short of the 33% ZEV mandate for 2026.
Nevertheless, the volume of new BEVs on the road in the month alone is staggeringly high and spread across many different manufacturers of varying RRPs.
Vehicles on the Road Data
Tesla and BYD make up the top 2 BEV manufacturers for last month, with Tesla in 1st and BYD in 2nd with 8,599 and 7,655 new registrations respectively. This is the highest month for Tesla since December 2024 and a record month for BYD, 1,757 more than they achieved in September 2025. A feather in the cap for new manufacturers.
The rest of the top 5 consisted of Kia, Ford and Volkswagen, indicating that more affordable manufacturers are displacing the likes of Mercedes and BMW. Does this highlight that BEV take up is moving more towards a decision of practicality over luxury?
Reverting to the topic of new OEMs, interestingly, SMMT reported that the top model sold across all fuel types was the Jaecoo 7 with 10,064 new registrations, 85% of which were PHEV. This is more than any one manufacturer achieved in BEV sales alone. Eye-catchingly, 55% of these came through private sales, rather than fleet channels, a stat legacy that manufacturers would be envious of, as typically this is on its head, with fleet acquisitions tending to make up 55% of new registrations.
Looking at new registration data from the last 12 months, Tesla remain top of the pile. Ford have supplanted Volkswagen moving into 2nd place for the first time. BYD have climbed up the leader board, from 6th place to 4th place, again highlighting the ever-expanding footprint of new manufacturers.
This time last year, BMW, Audi and Mercedes all featured in the top 5 for new registrations over the last 12 months, again showing more affordable options coming to the fore.
Looking at model level data, the Kia Sportage has been the top selling New Energy Vehicle (NEV) model from the last 12 months, with 30,082 new registrations. The aforementioned Jaecoo 7 comes in at a close 2nd with 29,304 new vehicles sold. This is quite incredible, given that a year ago, many people hadn’t heard of them and there were only circa 2,500 Jaecoo models on the road in the UK.
Crash Repair Costs Data
For the 2nd consecutive month BEV repair costs have moved down, having reached a 12-month peak in January-26. This is line with what we saw this time last year, where we observed a winter spike, and thereafter repair costs trending downwards until the end of Q3 2025.
Winter spikes are hardly surprising, but if we compare Q4 2025 to previous fourth quarters, we can see that repair costs have come down by 4% since Q4 2024 and 9% since Q4 2023. We are still due to capture some of the lengthier and more expensive repairs from Q1 this year (as they have not all been completed), but we expect to see a similar pattern.
Mirroring market data, as well as what we saw in February, average repair costs for Tesla, Audi, Mercedes, BMW and Volkswagen all moved down in March. The biggest drop was BMW, with repair costs coming down by 8.8%, whereas Tesla only reduced by 1.5%.
Looking back across the last 12 months, Mercedes has been the most expensive of the five to repair, with Tesla being £8 less on average. Meanwhile, BMW are now over £200 less to repair than both Mercedes and Tesla, whereas Audi is sandwiched somewhere in the middle with an average repair cost of £3,738.
Volkswagen, with a lower average RRP remain unsurprisingly cheaper to repair at £3,222, only marginally higher than their biggest competitor, Ford, whose average repair cost over the same period is £3,209. Nissan and Kia both remain around £200 less to repair on average than Volkswagen and Ford.
Average Accident Repair Costs by Manufacturer – Last 3 Months
| Jan-26 | Change | Feb-26 | Change | Mar-26 | Change | |
| Tesla | £3,991 | +1.3% | £3,678 | -7.8% | £3,623.00 | -1.5% |
| Volkswagen | £3,387 | -2.7% | £3,190 | -5.8% | £3,116.00 | -2.3% |
| Mercedes | £4,135 | +4.7% | £3,747 | -9.4% | £3,625.00 | -3.3% |
| BMW | £3,958 | +1.2% | £3,855 | -2.6% | £3,514.00 | -8.8% |
| Audi | £4,093 | +5.7% | £3,568 | -12.8% | £3,423.00 | -4.1% |
n.b. Repair Costs are inclusive of discounts, but excluding tax
Other News
With petrol prices having increased by as much as 34% since the 28th February 2026 when the US and Israel commenced air strikes on Iran, Autotrader have reported a sharp rise in EV interest across the board. New EV car leads are up by 28% and used EV (0-5 years) are up by 15%. Used EVs are now taking up over 19% of all used fuel type leads, which is their highest share on record and disproportionate to the fact that EVs account for circa 5% of vehicles on the UK roads.
Chief Customer Officer at Autotrader has said “This isn’t just about price, it’s about confidence. When people feel that traditional fuel is vulnerable to global events, the appeal of electric becomes far stronger so the conflict is acting as a significant catalyst for EV interest across the UK market.”
Reuters have reported a similar pattern in Europe, with French used car retailer Aramisauto having said that EV sales nearly doubled from the week commencing 16th Feb to the week commencing 9th March. Olx of Amsterdam have seen EV enquiries dramatically increasing across its territories, with them jumping up by 50% in France, 40% in Romania, 54% in Portugal and 39% in Poland.
We will carefully observe this trend in the UK and across the Channel, irrespective of how the Iranian conflict develops.
To find out more about Gecko Risk and gain access to more in-depth new energy vehicle data, please contact team@geckorisk.com