Motor Vehicles: Sales

John Battle
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how many (a) low carbon road vehicles and (b) road vehicles were sold in the UK in each of the last five years.

Mr. Khan
Data on new vehicle registrations in the UK are collected by the DVLA (Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency). Table 1 shows the number of new vehicle registrations in the UK from 2004 to 2008. These data are published on the Department for Transport’s website which can be found at:

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/datatablespublications/vehicles/licensing/

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|Thousands|
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|         |Cars|Motorcycles|Vans|HGVs|Buses & coaches|Other|Total|
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|2004     |2,599|137|341|53|13|42|3,185|
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|2005     |2,443|136|330|57|13|43|3,021|
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|2006     |2,340|135|328|54|12|43|2,914|
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|2007     |2,390|146|340|47|12|61|2,997|
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|2008     |2,112|142|291|53|12|63|2,672|
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Data on the C02 emissions from most road vehicles are not available. However, since 2001, DVLA has collected data on the C02 emissions (gC02/km) of new cars registered in accordance with EU Decision 1753/2000/EC. There is no precise definition of a low carbon vehicle. Table 2 shows the number of new cars registered in the UK over the last five years with C02 emissions below 120gCO2/km. These cars have significantly lower C02 emissions than the average for newly registered cars in 2008 of 158gC02/km and have risen as a share of all newly registered cars from 3 per cent. in 2004 to 11 per cent. in 2008.

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|Thousands|
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|         |Cars below 120gCO2/km|Cars above 120gCO2/km|Unknown|Total|Cars below 120g as a percentage of total|
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|2004     |79|2,443|77|2,599|3|
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|2005     |75|2,311|57|2,443|3|
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|2006     |106|2,190|45|2,340|5|
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|2007     |131|2,221|38|2,390|5|
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|2008     |227|1,857|28|2,112|11|
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