Vehicle licensing statistics: 2023
Published 15 May 2024
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/vehicle-licensing-statistics-2023/vehicle-licensing-statistics-2023
About this release
This release presents statistics on motor vehicles in the United Kingdom (UK) covering the period up to December 2023. They are based on administrative data held by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA). These statistics include:
- new vehicle registrations
- all licensed vehicles
- zero emission vehicles
A range of detailed data tables and large data files are available online. Also available is a full list of definitions used in this release.
These statistics cover the whole of the United Kingdom, which is Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales) and Northern Ireland. Data prior to July 2014 covers Great Britain only.
If you have any feedback on this release, please contact vehicles statistics.
These are accredited official statistics and were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in April 2012. For more information, see the About these statistics section.
Headline figures
In 2023, the number of new vehicle registrations showed an increase of 16%, when compared to 2022. At the end of December 2023, there were more than 1,015,000 licensed zero emission vehicles on the road, representing 2.5% of all vehicles.
Comparing 2023 with 2022, in the UK, there were:
- 2,535,000 vehicles registered for the first time, an increase of 16% (VEH0150)
- 342,000 vehicles registered for the first time that were zero emission, an increase of 17% (VEH1153a)
- 314,000 cars registered for the first time that were zero emission, an increase of 18%
At the end of December 2023, compared to December 2022, in the UK there were:
- 41.2 million licensed vehicles, an increase of 1% (VEH0101a)
- 1,015,000 licensed zero emission vehicles, an increase of 47% (VEH1103a), including 931,000 zero emission cars, an increase of 48%
At the end of 2023, zero emission vehicles accounted for 2.5% of all road using vehicles, an increase of 0.8 percentage points from the end of 2022.
New registrations of vehicles: overview
There were 2.5 million vehicles registered for the first time in the UK during 2023. This was an increase of 16% compared to 2022 (VEH0150).
Table 1: Vehicles registered for the first time in the year by body type, UK, 2023 and 2022 (VEH0150)
| Body type | 2023: New registrations (thousands) | 2022: New registrations (thousands) | New registrations (year on year % change) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 2,535 | 2,178 | 16.4 |
| Cars | 1,946 | 1,652 | 17.8 |
| Light goods vehicles (LGVs) | 352 | 292 | 20.5 |
| Heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) | 51 | 46 | 11.6 |
| Motorcycles | 121 | 126 | -4.2 |
| Buses and coaches | 6 | 4 | 27.9 |
| Other vehicles | 59 | 57 | 4.0 |
Monthly seasonality
When DVLA issues a new registration plate series, there is usually a peak in new vehicle registrations. Since 1999, new plates have been issued twice a year, in March and September.
New registrations of zero emission vehicles
Zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) are a sub-set of ultra low emission vehicles (vehicles that are reported to emit less than 75g of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the tailpipe for every kilometre travelled), currently only including:
- battery electric vehicles (BEVs)
- fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs, sometimes referred to as hydrogen powered)
There were 314,000 zero emission cars registered for the first time in 2023, an increase of 18% from 2022. Zero emission cars accounted for 16% of all new car registrations, which showed little change in 2022.
There were up to 22,000 zero emission light goods vehicles (LGVs) registered for the first time in 2023, an increase of 63%, compared to 2022. Zero emission LGVs accounted for 6% of all new registrations, the same as in 2022.
Table 2: Zero emission vehicles registered for the first time by body type, with previous year and total new registrations comparison, UK, 2023 and 2022 (VEH1153a)
| Body type | 2023: New registrations of zero emission vehicles (thousands) | 2023: Proportion (%) of all new road using vehicle registrations that are zero emission | 2022: Proportion (%) of all new road using vehicle registrations that are zero emission |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 341,612 | 13.8 | 13.8 |
| Cars | 314,248 | 16.1 | 16.2 |
| Light goods vehicles | 21,811 | 6.2 | 6.3 |
| Heavy goods vehicles | 295 | 0.6 | 0.3 |
| Motorcycles | 3,942 | 3.3 | 5.0 |
| Buses and coaches | 1,248 | 21.9 | 15.7 |
| Other vehicles | 68 | 1.3 | 2.4 |
Heavy vans
Cars and light goods vehicles (up to and including 3.5 tonnes) can typically be driven by those with a category B driving licence. Since July 2018, people with this licence can also drive alternatively fuelled vehicles up to 4.25 tonnes (which are classified as Heavy Goods Vehicles, HGVs, those over 3.5 tonnes) with some additional training. The statistics presented here place these “heavy vans” into the light goods vehicle category to align with these policy changes.
Chart 1: Zero emission car and light goods vehicles (LGVs) registered for the first time as a percentage of all new registrations, UK, 2018 to 2023 (VEH1153a)
Chart 1 shows the new zero emission registrations of cars and light goods vehicles (LGVs) as a percentage of all new registrations since 2018. Until 2023, this percentage had increased every year since 2018 for both vehicle types. In 2023, zero emission cars accounted for 16% of new vehicle registrations with zero emission LGVs accounting for 6%.
Longer term fuel trends
Chart 2: Cars registered for the first time by fuel type, UK, 2015 to 2023 (VEH1153a)
Chart 2 shows diesel and petrol car new registrations have been generally falling in recent years. The number of new petrol car registrations have been falling since 2019 until 2023 when there were 899,000 new registrations of petrol cars, a 9% increase from 2022. The number of new diesel car registrations have been falling since 2019 until 2023. Both hybrid and plug-in hybrid new registrations have seen an increase in recent years. The number of new ZEV car registrations has been increasing steadily in recent years with 314,000 new registrations of ZEV cars in 2023, accounting for 16% of all new registrations in 2023, compared to 16% in 2022 and 1% in 2018.
Keepership
Registered keeper
Every registered vehicle, unless it is in the process of changing hands, has a registered keeper, whose details are held by DVLA. These statistics are based on the provided title of the keeper (for example Mr, Mrs, Ms).
Note that the registered keeper of a vehicle is not necessarily the person who uses it, and the vehicle is not always based at the keeper’s contact address. This is particularly true for company or fleet vehicles.
Chart 3: Proportion of new car registrations by keepership and fuel type, UK, 2023 (VEH1153)
Chart 3 shows that zero emission vehicles have the highest proportion of new registrations to company keepers. Comparing all fuel types, the proportion of new registrations to company keepers is:
- 81% for zero emission vehicles
- 78% for plug-in hybrids
- 64% for diesel
- 53% for petrol
- 51% for hybrids
Common zero emission generic models
Generic model
Generic model is a grouping of models to help compare models on the road.
Manufacturers vary in their approach on how many model versions they give a particular range of vehicles. For example, there are 3 model versions for Tesla Model 3, but there are over 800 model versions for Ford Fiesta.
Chart 4: Top 10 generic models for zero emission vehicles registered for the first time, UK, 2023 (VEH0181b)
Chart 4 shows the top 10 generic zero emission models registered for the first time in 2023 for the UK. Tesla Model Y had the highest number of new registrations, with 35,899 vehicles, followed by Mg 4 with 21,461 vehicles, and Audi Q4 with 16,758 vehicles.
Licensed vehicles
The number of licensed vehicles grows more slowly than the total number of new registrations. This is a consequence of vehicles leaving the on-road stock through a variety of routes, such as:
- receiving a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN)
- being written off or scrapped
- being exported from the UK
Table 3: Licensed vehicles, licensed zero emission vehicles and proportion of licensed vehicles that are zero emission by body type, UK, 2023 (VEH0101a), (VEH1103a)
| Body type | 2023: Licensed vehicles (thousands) | 2023: Licensed zero emission vehicles (thousands) | 2023: Proportion (%) of all licensed road using vehicles that are zero emission |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 41,175 | 1,015 | 2.5 |
| Cars | 33,580 | 931 | 2.8 |
| Light goods vehicles | 4,710 | 66 | 1.4 |
| Heavy goods vehicles | 535 | 1 | 0.2 |
| Motorcycles | 1,354 | 14 | 1.0 |
| Buses and coaches | 141 | 3 | 2.1 |
| Other vehicles | 855 | <1 | <0.1 |
What vehicles are included?
These figures only include vehicles that are licensed for use on UK roads, which typically requires paying Vehicle Excise Duty (VED).
Vehicles that are not licensed should typically be given a SORN. The keeper can then re-license their vehicle at any time. Detailed tables relating to vehicles with a SORN are available.
Vehicle age
At the end of December 2023, the average age of a licensed car in the UK was 9 years old, an increase of 16% compared to the end of December 2018.
Table 4: Average age since first use of licensed vehicles by body type, UK, end of December 2023 and 2018 (5 years earlier) (VEH1107)
| Body type | Average age (years) since first use at the end of December 2023 | Average age (years) since first use at the end of December 2018 |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 10 | 8 |
| Cars | 9 | 8 |
| Light goods vehicles | 9 | 8 |
| Heavy goods vehicles | 8 | 7 |
| Motorcycles | 16 | 14 |
| Buses and coaches | 12 | 11 |
| Other vehicles | 17 | 16 |
Improvements made in this release
If you have any feedback on any of these changes, please contact vehicles statistics.
Data table changes
There have been changes the classification in these statistics for HGVs and LGVs. Due to the additional weight of the powertrain (for example, the battery), typically, zero emission vehicles have an increased mass compared to their petrol and diesel equivalents. Despite this extra weight, 4.25 tonnes zero emission vans are equivalent in function and appearance to large petrol and diesel vans (3.5 tonnes). As such, we have updated all our statistics for the 2023 annual release to include zero emission vehicles between 3.5 tonne and 4.25 tonne in the LGV category, and not the HGV category they were in previously. For more details on body type definitions used in these statistics, please see our notes and definitions.
Data file changes
For the 2023 annual release, we have improved our processing of Make and Model names within the data files produced to remove unnecessary blank characters.
Background notes
About these figures
Almost all the statistics in the vehicle licensing statistics series are derived by Department for Transport statisticians from extracts of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) vehicle database. The main purpose of the database is to administer vehicle registration and licensing records in the United Kingdom.
For further information about the data used in this release, please see our guidance page which contains:
- detailed notes and definitions
- a note on users and uses of these statistics
There is also a Statement of Administrative Sources for the DVLA vehicles database.
In this release, numbers may not add up to totals and percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding.
Geographic coverage
In July 2014, vehicle and registration services for Northern Ireland were centralised at DVLA, where these services for Great Britain were already administered. This created a single vehicle register for the United Kingdom, in place of separate registers for Great Britain and Northern Ireland. From this time, statistics can be provided for both Great Britain and the United Kingdom.
Data quality
The databases used for these statistics can be regarded as being virtually complete in terms of the number of vehicles registered for the first time, licensed vehicles, and vehicles with a SORN (Statutory Off Road Notification). However, there may be some errors in some of the specific details of individual vehicles.
The Department for Transport has previously estimated that under 2% of the vehicle records have an inaccuracy in one of the variables used for the statistics published. Other factors to consider in interpreting these statistics include:
- changes in legislation
- seasonal variation which affects some vehicle types
- foreign registered vehicles may also use UK road without bring registered with DVLA
- Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) evasion
Most of these factors will only have a marginal effect for most uses of the data.
About these statistics
These official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in April 2012. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice and should be labelled ‘accredited official statistics’.
Details of ministers and officials who receive pre-release access to these statistics up to 24 hours before release can be found in the pre-release access list.
Next release
Vehicle licensing statistics are published quarterly.
Dates of future releases will be advertised via the DfT statistical publications schedule.
To hear more about DfT statistics publications as they are released, please follow us on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Related sources of information
There are more recent data than published here available from various industry bodies covering most vehicle sales.
For car and van data, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) publish monthly shortly after the month-end, in advance of the publication of DfT’s detailed official statistics. This can be useful to look at the latest trends in vehicle registrations. Although there are slight differences in coverage of the SMMT data, the volumes and trends published by SMMT are generally consistent with DfT published data.
Comparison with the EU car market
The ACEA (European Automobile Manufacturers Association) produce new registration figures collected from trade bodies across Europe, covering the EU, the UK, and the EFTA (Iceland, Norway, Switzerland). UK data is provided by The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), which represents new car sales rather than new registrations with DVLA, so although the figures will be broadly comparable, they will not match.
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