The UK registered 350,536 new cars in September 2026, up 12.0% on 312,891 in September 2025 and the strongest September since 2017, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT, 5 October 2026). It is the 10th consecutive month of growth. These are SMMT's final figures; the preliminary print on 2 October was 350,518 (EV Fleet World).
A record 99,201 battery-electric cars
Battery-electric registrations climbed 36.3% to 99,201 units, a record volume and a 28.3% share of the month, up from 23.3% a year earlier. Plug-in hybrids rose 55.5% to 59,571 units and a record 17.0% share. Hybrids slipped 4.3% to 45,839 (13.1%), petrol fell 6.7% to 131,864 (37.6%) and diesel rose 11.5% to 14,061 (4.0%). Electrified vehicles together took a record 58.4% of the month.
Fleet and private both grew
Fleet registrations rose 9.6% to 190,998 units, a 54.5% share. Private registrations rose 13.9% to 149,166 units and a 42.6% share, and the smaller business sector grew 37.3% to 10,372 units. Year to date, fleet passed one million registrations (1,000,509).
The Jaecoo 7 tops the September electric list
The best-selling battery-electric model in September was the Jaecoo 7 with 10,814 registrations, ahead of the Tesla Model 3 (9,929) and the Ford Puma (6,958). For the year to date across all fuel types, the Ford Puma leads with 42,926 registrations, followed by the Jaecoo 7 (39,474) and the Kia Sportage (37,085). Volkswagen is the top brand for the year with 137,802 registrations.
Still below the mandate line
Nine months in, the UK has registered 1,739,271 new cars, up 10.2%, of which 454,947 are battery-electric, a 26.16% share. SMMT notes that this is below last year's 28% target and the 33% required in 2026, and says a 33% share would need about 265,000 more BEV registrations in the final quarter. SMMT is using the result to argue for the government's mandate review.
Open the live UK dashboard for the monthly bars and the BEV share trend back to 2015.