Vehicle licensing statistics: January to March 2026
Published 15 July 2026
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About this release
This release presents statistics on motor vehicles in the United Kingdom (UK) covering the period up to March 2026. 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 vehicle.stats@dft.gov.uk.
What vehicles are included?
Licensed vehicles 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 Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN). The keeper can then re-license their vehicle at any time.
New registration vehicles refer to vehicles that are registered with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) for the first time. This includes both new vehicles and vehicles imported into the UK at the point of first UK registration.
Road using vehicles are defined as vehicles expected to make significant use of public highways and to serve as a mode of transport. Introduced in 2021, this concept supports more accurate interpretation of vehicle statistics by excluding certain vehicle types, such as those that rarely utilise public roads. Approximately 98% of vehicles in the DVLA database meet this definition, with exceptions detailed in Table 2 of the notes and definitions. References to road using vehicles are explicitly labelled throughout this publication.
For further information, see vehicle licensing statistics: notes and definitions
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 2026 Quarter 1 (January to March), the number of new vehicle registrations showed an increase of 5.1%, when compared to 2025 Quarter 1 (January to March). At the end of March 2026, there were 2,148,000 licensed zero emission vehicles, representing 5.1% of all licensed vehicles, with 2,007,000 being road using.
Comparing 2026 Quarter 1 (January to March) with 2025 Quarter 1 (January to March), in the UK there were:
- 769,000 vehicles registered for the first time, an increase of 5.1% (VEH0150)
- 150,000 zero emission vehicles registered for the first time, an increase of 12.9% (VEH1153b), with 146,000 being road using (VEH1153a)
- 138,000 zero emission cars registered for the first time, an increase of 14.5% (VEH1153a)
At the end of March 2026, compared to March 2025, in the UK there were:
- 42.4 million licensed vehicles, an increase of 1.3% (VEH0101a)
- 2,148,000 licensed zero emission vehicles, an increase of 29.6% (VEH1103b), with 2,007,000 being road using (VEH1103a)
- 1,864,000 zero emission cars, an increase of 32.9% (VEH1103a)
At the end of March 2026, zero emission vehicles accounted for 5.1% of all licensed vehicles, an increase of 1.1 percentage points compared to March 2025 (VEH1103b).
New registrations of vehicles: overview
There were 769,000 vehicles registered for the first time in the UK in 2026 Quarter 1 (January to March). This was an increase of 5.1% compared to 2025 Quarter 1 (January to March) (VEH0150).
Table 1: Vehicles registered for the first time in the year by body type, UK, 2026 Q1 (January to March) and 2025 Q1 (January to March) (VEH0150)
| Body type | 2026 Q1 (January to March): New registrations | 2025 Q1 (January to March): New registrations | New registrations (year on year % change) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 768,970 | 731,503 | 5.1 |
| Cars | 631,451 | 592,857 | 6.5 |
| Light goods vehicles (LGVs) | 84,675 | 88,315 | -4.1 |
| Heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) | 11,111 | 11,271 | -1.4 |
| Motorcycles | 25,218 | 22,326 | 13.0 |
| Buses and coaches | 1,814 | 2,878 | -37.0 |
| Other vehicles | 14,701 | 13,856 | 6.1 |
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 vehicles that are reported to emit 0g 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 138,000 zero emission cars registered for the first time in January to March 2026, an increase of 14.5% from January to March 2025. Zero emission cars accounted for 21.8% of all new car registrations, compared to 20.3% in January to March 2025 (VEH1153a).
There were 7,000 road using zero emission light goods vehicles (LGVs) registered for the first time in January to March 2026, an increase of 2.7%, compared to January to March 2025. Road using zero emission LGVs accounted for 8.8% of all new LGV registrations, compared to 8.2% in January to March 2025 (VEH1153a).
Table 2: Zero emission road using vehicles registered for the first time by body type, with previous year and total new registrations comparison, UK, 2026 Q1 (January to March) and 2025 Q1 (January to March) (VEH1153a)
| Body type | 2026 Q1 (January to March): New registrations of road using zero emission vehicles | 2026 Q1 (January to March): Proportion (%) of all new road using vehicle registrations that are zero emission | 2025 Q1 (January to March): Proportion (%) of all new road using vehicle registrations that are zero emission |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 146,385 | 19.4 | 18.0 |
| Cars | 137,749 | 21.8 | 20.3 |
| Light goods vehicles | 7,443 | 8.8 | 8.2 |
| Heavy goods vehicles | 88 | 0.9 | 1.0 |
| Motorcycles | 517 | 2.1 | 2.8 |
| Buses and coaches | 576 | 31.8 | 26.3 |
| Other vehicles | 12 | 1.4 | 1.6 |
Heavy goods vehicles
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 goods vehicles” into the light goods vehicle category to align with these policy changes.
Chart 1: Zero emission road using car and light goods vehicles (LGVs) registered for the first time as a percentage of all new registrations, UK, 2022 Q1 (January to March) to 2026 Q1 (January to March) (VEH1153a)
Chart 1 shows the new zero emission registrations of cars and road using light goods vehicles (LGVs) as a percentage of all new registrations since 2022 Q1 (January to March). In 2026 Q1 (January to March), zero emission cars accounted for 21.8% of new car registrations with road using zero emission LGVs accounting for 8.8%.
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 road using vehicles and licensed road using zero emission vehicles by body type, with one year and total stock comparison, UK, 2026 Q1 (January to March) (VEH1103a)
| Body type | 2026 Q1 (January to March): Licensed road using vehicles | 2026 Q1 (January to March): Licensed road using zero emission vehicles | 2026 Q1 (January to March): Proportion (%) of all licensed road using vehicles that are zero emission |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 41,622,594 | 2,007,156 | 4.8 |
| Cars | 34,627,414 | 1,864,142 | 5.4 |
| Light goods vehicles | 4,893,161 | 119,123 | 2.4 |
| Heavy goods vehicles | 518,157 | 1,556 | 0.3 |
| Motorcycles | 1,368,370 | 13,328 | 1.0 |
| Buses and coaches | 142,815 | 8,336 | 5.8 |
| Other vehicles | 72,677 | 671 | 0.9 |
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 vehicle.stats@dft.gov.uk.
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 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 DfT statistical publications schedule.
To hear more about DfT statistics publications as they are released, please follow us on X.
Related sources of information
DfT also publishes ‘Cars and light goods vehicles registered for the first time by body type and fuel type’ as part of the monthly faster indicators of transport activity statistics series.
Data are sourced by a combination of vehicle registration data supplied by the DVLA, and the monthly published data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) to produce an early, provisional, estimate of the number of newly registered vehicles that DfT currently publishes as official statistics.
Further information and accompanying methodology notes are published on the department’s Developing faster indicators of transport activity page.
Although SMMT figures provide a very early indication of the vehicle market which broadly matches DfT official statistics, there are persistent differences between these figures as the SMMT data does not account for imported cars/LGVs or vehicle registrations from new manufacturers. The DfT faster indicators address these issues and so are closer to the final DfT estimates than SMMT 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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