Vehicle licensing statistics: January to March 2024
Published 24 July 2024
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/vehicle-licensing-statistics-january-to-march-2024/vehicle-licensing-statistics-january-to-march-2024
About this release
This release presents statistics on motor vehicles in the United Kingdom (UK) covering the period up to March 2024. 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
Latest figures for 2024 Quarter 1 (January to March), show the number of new vehicle registrations showed an increase of 10%, when compared to Quarter 1 (January to March) 2023.
At the end of March 2024, there were 1,100,000 licensed zero emission vehicles on the road, representing 2.7% of all vehicles.
Comparing 2024 Quarter 1 (January to March) with 2023 Quarter 1 (January to March), in the UK there were:
- 716,000 vehicles registered for the first time, an increase of 10% (VEH0150)
- 91,000 vehicles registered for the first time that were zero emission, an increase of 11% (VEH1153a)
- 84,000 cars registered for the first time that were zero emission, an increase of 11%
At the end of March 2024, compared to March 2023, in the UK there were:
- 41.4 million licensed vehicles, an increase of 1% (VEH0101a)
- 1,100,000 licensed zero emission vehicles, an increase of 43% (VEH1103a), including 1,010,000 zero emission cars, an increase of 44%
At the end of March 2024 zero emission vehicles accounted for 2.7% of all road using vehicles, an increase of 0.8 percentage points compared to the end of March 2023.
New registrations of vehicles: overview
There were 716,000 vehicles registered for the first time in the UK in 2024 Quarter 1 (January to March). This was an increase of 10% compared to 2023 Quarter 1 (January to March) (VEH0150).
Table 1: Vehicles registered for the first time in the year by body type, UK, 2024 Q1 (January to March) and 2023 Q1 (January to March) (VEH0150)
| Body type | 2024 Q1 (January to March): New registrations (thousands) | 2023 Q1 (January to March): New registrations (thousands) | New registrations (year on year % change) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 716 | 653 | 9.6 |
| Cars | 559 | 503 | 11.1 |
| Light goods vehicles (LGVs) | 98 | 90 | 9.0 |
| Heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) | 13 | 13 | -1.6 |
| Motorcycles | 30 | 30 | -1.1 |
| Buses and coaches | 2 | 1 | 71.2 |
| Other vehicles | 15 | 16 | -9.1 |
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 84,000 zero emission cars registered for the first time in January to March 2024, an increase of 11% from January to March 2023. Zero emission cars accounted for 15% of all new car registrations, which showed little change from the figure of 15% in January to March 2023.
There were up to 6,000 zero emission light goods vehicles (LGVs) registered for the first time in January to March 2024, an increase of 57%, compared to January to March 2023. Zero emission LGVs accounted for 6% of all new LGV registrations, a slight increase from the figure of 5% in January to March 2023.
Table 2: Zero emission vehicles registered for the first time by body type, with previous year and total new registrations comparison, UK, 2024 Q1 (January to March) and 2023 Q1 (January to March) (VEH1153a)
| Body type | 2024 Q1 (January to March): New registrations of zero emission vehicles (thousands) | 2024 Q1 (January to March): Proportion (%) of all new road using vehicle registrations that are zero emission | 2023 Q1 (January to March): Proportion (%) of all new road using vehicle registrations that are zero emission |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 91,235 | 13.0 | 12.9 |
| Cars | 84,371 | 15.1 | 15.1 |
| Light goods vehicles | 5,611 | 5.7 | 5.4 |
| Heavy goods vehicles | 59 | 0.5 | 0.4 |
| Motorcycles | 746 | 2.5 | 2.5 |
| Buses and coaches | 410 | 20.1 | 24.0 |
| Other vehicles | 38 | 3.0 | 0.8 |
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, 2019 Q1 (January to March) to 2024 Q1 (January to March) (VEH1153a)
Chart 1 shows the new zero emission registrations of cars and light goods vehicles (LGVs) as a percentage of all new registrations in the first quarter (January to March) since 2019. Until 2023 both vehicle types had seen large growths in their proportion of registrations on the previous year, since 2019. However from 2023 onwards, the proportion of zero emission cars and LGVs has remained unchanged or seen marginal increases with zero emission cars accounting for 15.1% of new vehicle registrations (unchanged from January to March 2023) while zero emission LGVs accounted for 5.7% (up slightly from 5.4% in January to March 2023).
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 and licensed zero emission vehicles by body type, with one year and total stock comparison, UK, 2024 Q1 (January to March) (VEH0101a), (VEH1103a)
| Body type | 2024 Q1 (January to March): Licensed vehicles (thousands) | 2024 Q1 (January to March): Licensed zero emission vehicles (thousands) | 2024 Q1 (January to March): Proportion (%) of all licensed road using vehicles that are zero emission |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cars | 33,735 | 1,010 | 3.0 |
| Motorcycles | 1,374 | 14 | 1.0 |
| Light goods vehicles | 4,741 | 71 | 1.5 |
| Heavy goods vehicles | 534 | 1 | 0.2 |
| Buses and coaches | 142 | 4 | 2.8 |
| Other vehicles | 859 | < 1 | < 0.1 |
| Total | 41,385 | 1,100 | 2.7 |
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.
Improvements made in this release
If you have any feedback on this release, 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 from 2023 onwards 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.
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 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. 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 roads without being 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 department’s statistical publications schedule.
To hear more about Department for Transport (DfT) statistical publications as they are released, follow us on X at DfTstats.
Related sources of information
There are more recent data than published in this release 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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