SMMT Announces February Sales Data
The new car market rose 7.2% in February registering 90,100 new vehicles, which is the largest volume of cars registered since 2004. But it’s what’s causing the rise which is surprising and we dig in to the data and find out.
The Stats
Bucking trends were petrol registrations that rose 5.2% and diesel registrations plunging by 3.5% to a new market share low of 4.5% of new registrations.
Hybrid sales grew a modest, but steady 3.3% in line with expectations.
But there were some shocks, too. Battery electric cars registrations grew just 2.8% compared to February 2025 - with market share falling by 1.1% to 24.2% - and with January registrations flat, there will now be an uphill struggle for manufacturers to meet the 33% ZEV mandate target this year.
The other shocker was that plug-in hybrid registrations increased a whopping 43.5% compared to February 2025.
This could be attributed to the flurry of new PHEV’s hitting the market recently, such as the OMODA 7 as tested by Not A Guru’s Jim Starling, or the wafty Skoda Superb which is now available as a hatchback.
February 2026 Car Registration Data
Plug-in hybrids, such as those from Chinese brand Chery and their sub-brands Omoda, Jaecoo and soon LEPAS offer outstanding value, over 50 miles of all electric range and rapid charging capabilities. This presents a direct challenge to often more expensive battery electric equivalents from other manufacturers.
And it’s these manufacturers that will have their work cut out trying to convince people to buy more EVs if they are to avoid hefty fines of up to £16,000 per non-compliant vehicle.
Best Sellers
The Ford Puma retained it’s 2025 crown by staying top of the charts in February, but there’s no breakdown indicating how many were petrol sales and how many were EV sales.
The Tesla Model 3 saw a surprise 4th place for car registrations - not just EV registrations - with 1,584 vehicles registered. Remarkable when the entry level car (Tesla’s least expensive car to date), the RWD, launched at the end of last month. You can read more about that here.
And the Jaecoo 7 was the other shocker. Having only launched the brand at the start of 2025, this Chery sub-brand is in already in 5th place in the sales charts beating the European incumbent SUV’s from Volkswagen and Ford.
SMMT New Registration Charts for February 2026
The Breakdown
SMMT states that demand was driven mostly by private retail registration growth, up 17.6%, while the business segment declined by -12.7% with fleets remaining the largest market share at 59.4% having grown by 1.8%.
What is evident is that the car market is recovering well with significant shifts in fuel preferences and customers shifting back to private ownership.
2026 is turning out to be a surprise year. And with pressure now growing on energy prices, will people move away from traditional internal combustion cars, and instead seek out cars with plugs in greater numbers to try and mitigate uncertainties around petrol and diesel prices this year?
———
About the Author
Graeme Cobb is a lifelong car enthusiast with a passion for writing about cars, EVs, industry updates and more.
You can find Graeme on 𝕏 at @graeme_cobb or YouTube @REV-EV.