Evidence review exploring how car ownership is changing in the UK

About the study

NatCen carried out an evidence review to understand how car ownership has changed over time, particularly focusing on recent trends since the pandemic. The report explores changes in household car ownership, the number of cars and the types of cars owned (for example, electric cars, hybrid cars etc.) and the reasons for any changes as well as how ownership is forecasted to change in the foreseeable future.

Key findings

The long-term trend for car ownership over the last 50 years is that the proportion of households in Great Britan and England with access to one or more cars has steadily increased.

• This trend was broken between 2020 to 2022 due to shifts in supply and demand during Covid-19 pandemic. In 2023 however, car sales are on the rise again but remain below pre-pandemic levels.
• In terms of trends in car types, in 2023, 9 in 10 UK licensed cars were fueled by petrol and diesel. Recent trends show a gradual decrease in petrol and diesel and a gradual increase in hybrid and electric.
• Recent sales data shows the new car market moving quickly to low emission vehicles; while the second-hand market is moving much more slowly in this regard.
• The factors associated with increased car ownership were found to include an increase in household size; an increase in income; having a child; moving house and house ownership. The review also found that there were large barriers to relinquishing a car entirely, linked with the high utility of vehicles for one car households. 
• The factors that could negatively influence car ownership were related to the increased cost of living, trends accelerated by Covid-19 (such as the trend for working from home and shifts in shopping habits) and alternatives to car ownership, such as the use of car sharing schemes. 
• In regards to purchasing an electric vehicle, the review found some positivity about the potential environmental benefits amongst consumers but also that concerns about affordability, the availability of charging points and concerns about vehicle range and battery life were key barriers to uptake.
• When it came the policies that have shown to impact the uptake of electric vehicles in the UK and other European countries, this has included financial actions, such as one-time subsidies or tax breaks on EV purchases; rolling out charge points; and public information campaigns. 
• Looking ahead, growth in the ownership of EVs is forecasted, alongside a decline in petrol and diesel cars in the UK. Reasons for the growth of EVs are linked in the evidence to regulatory CO2 targets, financial incentives for consumers, improved infrastructure, and vehicle availability.

Methodology

The evidence review used a rapid evidence assessment approach to systematically search for and prioritise relevant high-quality evidence against the research questions. The review drew on a combination of 33 academic articles and 32 sources which were a combination of wider data sets and industry papers.