The number of electric vehicles is rising across the UK with reports suggesting that at the end of March, there were 1,000,000 fully electric cars on British roads.
The car leasing experts at Xcite Car Leasing has assessed data from the UK government’s agency, the DVLA. The results of this analysis have been passed onto Digital Journal.
The objective was to find out where in the UK had the most EV uptake out of 1,454 towns and cities, and what cars those across the country were purchasing in those areas.
The EV Hotspot data shows that Tesla comes out on top as the overall most-driven EV brand in the UK with 187,251 cars on the road, which is no surprise given the dominance of the brand worldwide with the likes of the Model Y and Model S.
| Rank | Car brand | No. of EVs |
| 1. | Tesla | 187,251 |
| 2. | Volkswagen | 74,667 |
| 3. | Nissan | 73,049 |
| 4. | BMW | 69,943 |
| 5. | MG | 63,822 |
| 6. | Kia | 56,870 |
| 7. | Audi | 56,092 |
| 8. | Mercedes | 54,748 |
| 9. | Vauxhall | 48,857 |
| 10. | Hyundai | 48,692 |
Volkswagen is the second most-driven EV brand in the UK. Nissan comes in a close third place with only 1000 fewer vehicles on the road than Volkswagen.
Looking at all the towns and cities, Tesla was top in 46 percent of destinations included in the data.
While the data reveals the most popular brands on UK roads, it also suggests the rarest ones hiding around the UK. The Microcar brand, introduced around 30 years ago in France, is one of the only models in the UK. They produce the M.GO-3 model which is the world’s first lightweight saloon, weighing under 400kg. This car may have been imported from overseas, which is why we don’t see many of them in the UK. This particular Microcar is registered in Middlesbrough. Along with the Microcar, Middlesbrough is also home to other rare EV brands, like Genesis and AIXAM.
There are other EVs developed by well-known brands that are still rarely seen on roads around the UK. This includes Ferrari — which could be due to the brand only producing one hybrid option. Alfa Romeo also only has two EVs on the road in the UK, both in the South in Worthing and London. There are currently only two EVs available developed by this brand.
Other rare EV brands that might be more difficult to spot on the roads around the UK include Aston Martin with only 11 vehicles, the MIA EV with 14, and Dayun with 36.
In terms of locales, Stockport in Greater Manchester is home to the most EV drivers registered in the UK. With a huge 84,936 drivers choosing an electric vehicle, Stockport tops the table with around 13,000 more EVs on the road than in London.
Manchester and the surrounding areas are paving the way for clean air zones. Whilst this is still ongoing, it’s likely that drivers — including businesses and fleet vehicles — decided to get ahead of this initiative by making the change before it was established.
To make way for this imminent change, Stockport Council announced around £15 million worth of EV charging infrastructure to be introduced into the town and its surrounding areas.
| Town | Number of EV’s | Best selling EV manufacturer in the area | |
| Stockport | 84,936 | Tesla | |
| London | 71,615 | Tesla | |
| Swindon | 42,823 | Tesla | |
| Slough | 34,604 | Tesla | |
| Milton Keynes | 32,751 | Volkswagen | |
| Birmingham | 10,020 | Vauxhall | |
| Portsmouth | 9876 | Tesla | |
| Glasgow | 9449 | Tesla | |
| Bristol | 8198 | Tesla | |
| Nottingham | 6376 | Tesla |
London was next on the list of EV hotspots while those in Swindon came in third for the amount of electric vehicles owned.
