Bumper year as West Midlands new car registration surpass two million mark in 'record year'
West Midlands automotive manufacturing has received welcome news after it was announced that the UK new car market had enjoyed a record year.
New registrations grew for the third year in a row in 2025 and surpassed the two million mark for the first time since the pandemic, according to data published by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
There were a total of 2,020,520 new car registrations last year while uptake in December rose by 3.9 per cent to 146,249 units.
Tens of thousands of people across the Black Country, Shropshire and wider West Midlands are employed in the car sector with JLR operating multiple factories in places such as Birmingham, Solihull and Coventry alongside its Electric Propulsion Manufacturing Centre near Wolverhampton.
Luxury sports car brand Aston Martin is also headquartered in Warwickshire, with both firms supporting thousands of jobs in the local supply chain.
The SMMT said the battery electric vehicle registrations took a high market share in the final month of the year, accounting for 32.2 per cent of the market - the only time the zero emission vehicle mandate target of 28 per cent was exceeded in 2025.
As a result, last year's total car market rose by 3.5 per cent, with growth across all buyer types.
Demand from private buyers recovered slightly from 2024 - when uptake fell below levels last seen during 2020 - with a 4.5 per cent increase to 779,587 units but still only comprising 38.6 per cent of all registrations.
Fleet and business registrations also rose, up 2.6 per cent to 1,194,545 and 8.8 per cent to 46,388 respectively.
Electrified vehicles narrowly missed becoming the majority of the market despite a surge during the last quarter.
Hybrid electric vehicle volumes rose by 7.2 per cent to achieve a 13.9 per cent market share while plug-in hybrids were the fastest growing powertrain, with volumes increasing 34.7 per cent to take 11.1 per cent of registrations.
Meanwhile, 473,348 new battery EVs were registered during 2025 - more than in the whole of 2021 and 2022 combined.
The research said this huge volume was likely to place the UK as the second biggest EV market in Europe by volume.
The SMMT is a trade association which represents the domestic automotive industry, a sector said to contribute £92 billion turnover and £25 billion value added to the UK economy.
Chief executive Mike Hawes said: "The new car market finally reaching two million registrations for the first time this decade is a reasonably solid result amid tough economic and geopolitical headwinds.
"Rising EV uptake is an undoubted positive but the pace is still too slow and the cost to industry too high.
"Government has stepped in with the electric car grant but a new EV tax, additional charges for EV drivers in London and costly public charging send mixed signals.
"Given developments abroad, government should bring forward its review and act urgently to deliver a vibrant market, a sustainable industry and an investment proposition that keeps the UK at the forefront of global competition."
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