Gecko Risk – Electric Vehicle Data Insights

There were 502,535 new BEV registrations in 2025, up 24% from the previous year. New energy vehicle registrations (which includes hybrids) accounted for over 1,020,750 units hitting the road last year, which is just under half of all vehicle registrations in the last 12 months.

BEV market share (for cars only) was 23.8%, falling shy of the ZEV mandate target of 28% for 2025. BEV vehicle discounts under the UK’s Electric Car Grant (ECG), will have no doubt played their part, with this being applied to OEMs including, Renault, Toyota, Skoda, Nissan, VW, Stellantis (Citroen, DS, Peugeot, Vauxhall), Ford, Mini, Cupra and Kia, offering up to £3,750 off the retail price, depending on the make and model.

However, SMMT Chief Executive, Mike Hawes, has said these discounts are “unsustainable”. Furthermore, we await the impact of the BEV vehicle tax (3p per mile) being introduced in April and Employee Car Ownership Schemes (ECOS) becoming liable for Benefit in Kind taxes in October 2026.

The Government enforced ZEV mandate for 2026 has been set at 33% for BEV new registrations.  They will therefore need to hope that the impact of the Electric Car Grant (ECG) and cheaper Chinese models will offset that of new prohibitive tax implications.

Vehicles on the Road Data

There were 49,821 new BEV registrations in Dec-25, which was the fourth highest month of the year. Tesla remained top of the pile in terms of new registrations, and tellingly BYD moved up to 2^nd place for the first time. Volkswagen, Ford and BMW all featured again in the top 5 for consecutive months.

Throughout 2025 Telsa remained the most popular BEV brand, despite them not being eligible for ECG discounts. As ever Volkswagen were hot on the heels of Tesla, with Ford, BMW and Audi making up the rest of the top 5.

BYD, who are also not eligible for ECG discounts (due to them being a Chinese manufacturer) continue to be in the top 10, featuring at sixth. There are now more than 280,000 vehicles manufactured by Chinese brands on the road in the UK, over 150,000 of which were registered in 2025.

The only change to the order from our last report, was Renault supplanting Hyundai to squeeze into 10^th place for new registrations for all of 2025.

Crash Repair Costs Data

Average repair costs for BEVs hit a new low in Dec-25, with an average of £3,281. Throughout 2025 average repair costs have decreased by circa 8.5%. However, much of this decrease occurred in the first half of the year, whereas for the last six months repair costs have been remarkably flat, fluctuating by no more than 1.5%.

There is no more than £150 separating Audi, BMW, Tesla and Mercedes with each OEM swapping places month by month as to which is the most expensive to repair. For instance, Audi went from being the most expensive of the four in November, to the least in December, decreasing by 4.4.%. Whereas BMW found themselves at the top the pile having been the cheapest to repair in the previous month. Tesla continue to be the least volatile of the 5 OEMs, having increased by 0.3% month on month. Volkswagen repair costs hit their highest point since May, having increased by 7.2% from November, equating to an average repair cost of £3,623.

Average Accident Repair Costs by Manufacturer – Last 3 Months

n.b. Repair Costs are inclusive of discounts, but excluding tax.

Although repair costs have been relatively flat in recent months, we have seen Parts Costs increase by around 3% and Labour Costs decrease by around 2.5% over the last 3 months. Ultimately, they offset against one another, meaning there is little change in Total Costs over the last quarter.

Other News

As mentioned earlier in our report, BEVs made up 23.8% of the UK’s new vehicle registrations in 2025. Elsewhere, in Norway, BEVs made up 95.9% of all new registrations, with Tesla being the top selling brand for five years in a row. Additional taxes for new BEVs have been introduced in Norway as of the start of this year, meaning there was a rush of new buyers before the year-end.  However, the additional charges to ICE vehicles mean BEVs will continue to be by far and away the more popular option in this oil producing nation.

By stark contrast in was announced last month that the EU is relaxing its ban on pure ICE and hybrid vehicles for 2035 with them now proposing to lower the enforced 100% of all new vehicles being zero emission to 90%. It will be interesting to see if or when the UK could follow suit?