Gecko Risk – Electric Vehicle Data Insights

There were 31,923 new BEV registrations in January 2026, only 319 more than the same month last year and up just over 1%. This is just over a 20% market share for January-2026 when compared to other fuel types and some distance away from the UK Government’s 2026 Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate requirement of 33%.  It should be noted that new registrations in January tend to be lower and should not necessarily be taken as indicative for the rest of the year.

Vehicles on the Road Data

Interestingly, the top 5 manufacturers from last month featured OEMs of moderately lower retail value than we are used to, with Ford, Volkswagen, Skoda, Kia and Renault featuring, rather than the likes of Audi, BMW and Tesla. Does this indicate that EV uptake is moving away from a luxury led purchase more towards a decision of practicality?

We also didn’t see any Chinese OEMs feature in the top 5 BEVs, last month, although the uptake of Chinese hybrids, seems to have been greater. From our New Energy Vehicle data, the top selling models last month were indeed hybrids, with the Jaecoo 7 and BYD Seal U, accounting for 3,033 and 2,550 new registrations respectively.

In terms of the last 12 months, there has been little change to the order of top 10 BEV manufacturers. Volkswagen narrowed the gap on Tesla and Renault supplanted Mercedes to move into 9^th place. BYD hung onto sixth place, despite a modest January, although it should be noted that Skoda and Kia are still some way off catching them.

Crash Repair Costs Data

BEV average repair costs have remained relatively flat, not fluctuating by more than £100 over the last six months. We do however expect Dec-25 and Jan-26 to increase slightly when we fold in some of the more lengthy and therefore expensive repairs that occurred in those months but are yet to be completed. We, therefore, would not be surprised for the chart below to adjust and for us to realise a moderate increase in average repair costs over the last 3 months. This would align with an increase in parts costs that we have been observing month-on-month.

Average repair costs for BMW, Audi and Mercedes all edged up last month, with the biggest change being for Audi that increased by 6% to become the most expensive to repair for last month alone. Tesla stayed relatively flat and Volkswagen dropped by 7.4%.

However, zooming out and looking at repair costs over the last 12 months, Mercedes is the most expensive of the four, close to £200 more that that of BMW. Audi repair costs seem to be the more volatile monthly, whereas Tesla stay flat, but this may be more down to volumes and law of large numbers applying.

Elsewhere, for manufacturers where have recorded more than 1,000 accidents over the last year, Citroen and Fiat appear to be the cheapest to repair, where the most expensive, perhaps unsurprisingly, are Porsche and Jaguar.

Average Accident Repair Costs by Manufacturer – Last 3 Months

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

Other News

Looking outside of the UK it was interesting to note that Volkswagen overtook Tesla as being the top EV seller in Europe in 2025. Volkswagen sold 274,278 BEVs in Europe whereas as Tesla recorded 236,357 new registrations (according to Jato dynamics). The report took data from 28 European ⁠countries, including non-EU members Norway, Switzerland and Britain, but excluded ‌Bulgaria and Malta.

Over the pond, Mark Carney, the Canadian PM looks set to announce a new automotive strategy, which will seek to relax the previously set mandate of phasing out ICE vehicle new registrations by 2035.