Automotive market update - November: EVs perform well despite Budget anticipation

Welcome to the fourth in our new series of monthly market insight articles, where we provide a snapshot of what’s happening in the UK automotive market. Each month, we highlight key industry updates and trends, including electric vehicle (EV) adoption, plus our vehicle leasing insights.

Here our Operations Director Rob Marshall gives his take on November’s performance.

What’s happening with new car sales in the UK?

November is traditionally a slower month for new car sales in the run up to Christmas, and we expect that some businesses and individuals held off new purchases or leases in anticipation of changes in the Chancellor’s Budget at the end of the month.

Against this backdrop, we think November’s performance was better than expected. Electric car sales continued their upward trend, reaching a 26.4% share of the market (compared with 25.1% in 2024), supported by the Electric Car Grant.

Sales of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) also rose by 14.8%, and they now have a 11.9% market share (up from 10.2% in 2024).

Despite this uplift, November was the weakest month for EV growth since December 2023, according to The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), which publishes the new vehicle registration figures, and EV market share year-to-date is 22.7%. This means there is still more to do for manufacturers to reach the 28% Government target set by the zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate.

EVs remain an attractive option

Although some industry commentators are concerned that the announcement in the Budget of a new "pay-per-mile" system for EVs and plug-in hybrids from 2028 is “too soon” and “will endanger the UK’s net zero transition”, at Gateway2Lease we’re optimistic that EVs will remain an attractive proposition.

EV drivers continue to enjoy low benefit-in-kind tax, there will be a new threshold for the Expensive Car Supplement from April 2026, with many popular EVs sitting below that, and the Electric Car Grant for qualifying cars has been extended to 2030.

Our data shows that EVs remain popular, particularly with our business customers. EVs accounted for 73% of our total orders in November, including personal contract hire (PCH), business contract hire (BCH) and salary sacrifice through our partner, The Electric Car Scheme. Excluding salary sacrifice, about half (48%) of our orders were EVs.

Do November’s most popular new cars match with our sales?

The Kia Sportage and Nissan Qashqai appear in both the SMMT’s top 10 best-selling cars in November and our own most popular models for that month.

Jaecoo, which had the biggest market share gain year on year, with 2.25% of November registrations, features in both the SMMT’s listing and ours, although it’s the more budget-friendly Jaecoo J5 our customer base is ordering rather than the larger Jaecoo 7.

The differences in the SMMT’s listing and our listing are partly because we take advantage of tactical offers, and our listing is for all business written, including salary sacrifice cars through our partner The Electric Car Scheme, and certain models perform particularly well in that channel.

We also ran a Black Friday promotion, where we offered £250 cashback on any new order before 5 December (subject to terms and conditions) which saw people opting for a range of brands.

The UK’s top 10 best-selling cars in November

1. Ford Puma
2. Kia Sportage
3. Nissan Qashqai
4. Nissan Juke
5. Volkswagen T-Roc
6. Volkswagen Golf
7. Vauxhall Corsa
8. Jaecoo 7
9. MINI Cooper
10. Audi A3

Gateway2Lease’s top 10 most popular cars in November

1. Dacia Spring
2. Tesla Model 3
3. Jaecoo J5
4. Tesla Model Y
5. Kia Sportage
6. Mercedes-Benz EQA
7. Volvo XC40
8. MG HS
9. Nissan Qashqai
10. Hyundai Tucson

What’s happening in the UK fleet market?

Fleet and business registrations combined were up very modestly at 0.8%, from 95,114 new cars registered in November 2024 to 95,901 in November 2025, with businesses likely to have been pausing decisions until post-Budget.

However, Our BCH orders (including salary sacrifice) were 59% up,and we saw a similar performance with PCH.

What’s next for new car sales in December?

With many consumers turning their attention to Christmas there’s likely to be the usual slow down in the market. However, as we said in our last automotive market update, we’re expecting a big push from car makers to hit the ZEV mandate so look out for some attractive lease rates at year end.