Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) have reached their highest share yet on Epyx’s 1link Service Network in a new watershed moment.

Almost half (49.16%) of new vehicles added to the service, maintenance and repair (SMR) platform in December were BEVs – the highest percentage yet recorded and a substantial jump from the previous high of 45.08%, recorded in August.

The platform supports SMR management for 4.9 million UK company vehicles, and the company said the figure was a useful representation of current fleet acquisition.

Tim Meadows, CCO, elaborated: “It is a figure that should probably be treated with some care – December is not a high sales month and can produce some unrepresentative results – but having nearly half of all vehicles added to the platform being BEVs does feel like something of a milestone.”

There are still quite strong month-by-month fluctuations in the data when it came to fuel types. For example, in September, the corresponding BEV figure was just 34.63%.

Meadows went on: “Overall, it is clear that EVs continue to gain ground, largely at the expense of petrol, but there remain substantial short-term ups-and-downs. These are probably largely caused by normal seasonal shifts in the market but also increasing levels of pre-registrations and the ZEV mandate may be causing some distortions.”

December’s high BEV figure was accompanied by corresponding falls in other fuel types being added to 1link Service Network, with petrol at 18.09%.

Meadows commented: “This is the lowest figure yet recorded for petrol and it’s worth pointing out that in some months during 2022, it accounted for two out of three sales. It’s been a relatively rapid decline although the latest percentage is unusually low compared to recent data.”

Other December results from 1link Service Network showed hybrids at 20.35% and diesel at 12.40%.

“This is slightly on the low side for hybrids, which trended in the mid 20%s for most of last year, while the diesel figure is typical of recent performance,” he finished.