Registrations of vehicles eligible for OLEV’s Plug-in Car Grant increased by 385% on the first quarter of 2014, reaching 8,473 units as of the end of March led by the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. The Nissan LEAF, BMW i3 and BMW i8 complete the top-five list of big-selling ULEVs.

Fleet and business registrations outstripped the market average increase. These totalled 6,045 units, or 68.4% of the market, up 421% on the 1,822 registrations during the first quarter of 2014. Private vehicle registrations increased 322%, from 661 to 2,791%, year on year, with the retail share of the overall market declining from 36.3% to 31.6%.

Across the market, plug-in hybrid and range extenders accounted for two-thirds of Plug-in Car Grant applications in the first quarter of 2015. Registrations of plug-in hybrids and range extenders increased ten-fold, from 535 units to 5,294, in the same period, while commercial ULEV registrations increased 353% year on year, to 263 units.