(Reuters) -Britain's new car sales jumped 25.8% year-on-year in June thanks to solid demand for electric vehicles (EV) from businesses and fleet buyers, an industry body said on Wednesday.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said new car sales rose to 177,266 units last month, the 11th consecutive month of growth, though volumes remained below pre-pandemic levels.
As battery electric vehicle (BEV) registrations grew 39.4% in the same period, SMMT also called for a cut in value added tax (VAT) on public charging to drive up EV adoption.
Drivers able to charge at home pay just 5% VAT to power up their EV, compared with 20% for those who are reliant on the public network, according to SMMT.
"This is unfair and risks delaying greater uptake, so cutting VAT on public EV charging will help make owning an EV fairer and attractive to more people," CEO Mike Hawes said in a statement.
Meanwhile, close to a million new cars joined UK roads in the first six months of 2023 with total registrations up 18.4%, and BEV uptake was at a record 152,968 deliveries so far this year, the industry body said.
For June, deliveries of petrol cars, which continue to represent the majority of registrations, increased 13.5%, while diesel registrations were down 22.3%.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Inc's Model Y and Ford's Puma were the most popular cars among Britons for the month, the data showed.