Almost 140,000 of greenest cars now on the road

Mitsubishi leads Nissan, BMW and Mercedes

The Mitsubishi Outlander remains the most common ultra-low emission car on the UK’s roads.

The latest data available show that at the end of Q1 2018 there were 33,964 of the plug-in hybrid version of the vehicle licensed.

Next comes the pure battery-electric Nissan Leaf with 21,675 on the road.

Staying in third place is the BMW 330e (10,301) ahead of the BMW i3 and i3s (9,469 licensed).

Fifth is the Mercedes-Benz C350 e (9,127).

Analysis of DVLA data by the RAC Foundation shows that at the end of Q1 2018 there were a total of 139,634 cars and vans licensed in the UK that are, or have been, eligible for the government’s plug-in grant schemes.

This is 10% higher than the 127,077 on the road at the end of the previous quarter (Q4 017) and 47% higher than the 94,636 on the road a year earlier (Q1 2017).

Vehicles that are, or have been, eligible for the government’s plug-in car and van grant schemes and which were on the road in the UK at the end of Q1 2018 (the most recent date for which figures are available). For example, the Audi Q7, BMW i8, Mercedes S500 Hybrid and Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid are no longer eligible for the grant because they have a recommended retail price over £60,000 which puts them outside the current scheme.

Rank	Make and Model	Q1 2018	Q4 2017	Q3 2017	Q2 2017	Q1 2017
1	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV (all variants)	33,964	32,048	31,002	29,408	27,677
2	Nissan Leaf	21,675	19,624	18,922	17,352	16,501
3	BMW 330e	10,301	9,143	7,402	6,039	4,873
4	BMW i3 and i3s (of which are the Range extender version)	9,469 (6,688)	9,024 (6,437)	8365 (6056)	7,597 (5,464)	6,798 (4,903)
5	Mercedes-Benz C350 e	9,127	8,867	8,634	7,724	6,855
6	Tesla Model S	7,448	6,972	6,217	5,575	5,172
7	Volkswagen Golf GTE	6,030	5,411	4,384	3,595	3,341
8	Renault Zoe	5,847	5,751	5,729	5,432	5,212
9	Volvo Xc90 T8 Twin Engine	3,740	3,338	2,979	2,522	2,184
10	Nissan e-NV200 (all variants)	2,791	2,639	2,598	2,324	2,150
11	BMW 530e	2,662	1,896	1,174	404	29
12	Audi A3 e-tron	2,452	2,402	2,348	2,084	1,961
13	Tesla Model X	2,401	2,114	1,686	1,112	666
14	Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid	2,359	2,087	2,005	1,889	1,785
15	Volkswagen Passat GTE	2,311	1,606	1,090	704	447
16	BMW i8	1,841	1,763	1,719	1,711	1,641
17	BMW 225xe	1,627	1,458	1,157	949	771
18	Mini Countryman PHEV	1,530	946	371	128	–
19	Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid	1,322	1,074	946	636	513
20	Vauxhall Ampera	1,275	1,269	1,265	1,266	1,282
21	Mercedes-Benz E350 e	1,064	901	820	583	271
22	Renault Kangoo ZE	985	929	904	876	864
23	Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid (all variants)	795	785	759	725	701
24	Kia Niro PHEV	752	289	137	–
25	Hyundai IONIQ PHEV	617	314	188	–
26	Kia Soul EV	535	465	377	328	288
27	Kia Optima Saloon PHEV	482	397	339	312	299
28	Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive	475	481	489	488	425
29	Audi Q7 e-tron	434	350	260	181	79
30	Peugeot Ion	422	426	426	421	418
31	Volvo XC60 Twin Engine	413	177	41	9	–
32	Hyundai IONIQ EV	389	305	239	224	–
33	Volkswagen e-Golf	350	224	189	147	137
34	Smart ForTwo Electric Drive (EQ)	338	324	260	228	210
35	Mitsubishi i-Miev	253	258	261	257	257
36	Citroen C-Zero	225	232	233	230	227
37	Volkswagen e-up!	186	187	176	171	167
38	Chevrolet Volt	121	120	120	118	119
39	Smart ForFour Electric Drive (EQ)	119	71	27	11
40	Mercedes-Benz S500 Hybrid	109	118	121	121	121
41	Citroen Berlingo EV	74	66	61	51	45
42	Volvo V90 Twin Engine	67	43	17	1	–
43	Renault Fluence	65	72	71	73	75
44	LEVC TX (Taxi)	61	1
45	Volvo S90 Twin Engine	48	28	1	–
46	Toyota Mirai	45	44	41	32	30
47	Ford Focus Electric	15	17	19	22	21
48	Mia (all variants)	13	14	14	14	13
49	Daimler Mercedes-Benz Vito E-Cell	7	7	9	9	11
50	Jaguar I-PACE	3
51	BYD e6	–	–	–	–	–
=	BD Otomotiv eTraffic	–	–	–	–	–
=	BD Otomotiv eDucato	–	–	–	–	–
=	Peugeot ePartner	–	–	–	–	–
=	Smith Electric Smith Edison	–	–	–	–	–
=	Mahindra e20	–	–	–	–	–
=	LDV EV80 (all variants)	–	–	–
	Total	139,634	127,077	116,592	104,083	94,636

Note: Some of the vehicles above might have been bought without the grant. Some might be licensed to manufacturers and dealers rather than customers. The total number licensed is below the total number of grants claimed because of the lag between an order being placed and the car being delivered.

ENDS

Contacts:

Philip Gomm – Head of External Communications – RAC Foundation

020 7747 3445 | 07711 776448 | [email protected]

Notes to editors:

The RAC Foundation is a transport policy and research organisation that explores the economic, mobility, safety and environmental issues relating to roads and their users. The Foundation publishes independent and authoritative research with which it promotes informed debate and advocates policy in the interest of the responsible motorist.

The RAC Foundation is a registered charity, number 1002705.

The current structure of the plug-in car and van schemes – and the grants available for particular models – are described here:

https://www.gov.uk/plug-in-car-van-grants

Details of the Foundation’s work is available at www.racfoundation.org

The licensing figures by model are available to view on the RAC Foundation website:

http://www.racfoundation.org/data/plug-in-grant-eligible-vehicles-licensed-by-quarter

It is available to embed on your website using the following code:

The overall number of plug-in car and van grant eligible vehicles licensed plotted over time (broken down by pure electric versus plug-in hybrids) is also available on the same webpage:

http://www.racfoundation.org/data/plug-in-grant-eligible-vehicles-licensed-by-quarter

It is available to embed on your website using the following code:

Almost 140,000 of greenest cars now on the road21 Jun 2018

Mitsubishi leads Nissan, BMW and Mercedes