Are EVs to blame? Average UK car hits 10 years old as new-car sales decline
The average car on UK roads is nine years and 10 months old, with petrol cars typically being kept on the road for the longest
Like the UK as a whole, the nation’s roads are suffering from an ageing population because the average car is now 10 years old – the highest it’s been since records began. This comes after another slow new-car sales month in July, suggesting people are deciding to keep their old cars rather than switch to newer electric cars.
Information from the RAC Foundation shows that the average car is now nine years and 10 months old: nine months older than in 2023 and more than three years older than in 1994 – although that data changed from covering just Great Britain to the whole UK in 2014.
The RAC Foundation’s director, Steve Gooding, said: “On the plus side, for motorists, the design and build quality of modern cars mean they are looking good and running reliably for far longer - the days of them rusting away before your eyes are well and truly behind us.”
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It’s petrol-powered cars that typically stay on the road for the longest; the average age for a petrol car is 10 years and four months versus 10 years and one month for diesels. In fact, four in 10 cars on the road nowadays have been on the road for a decade or more – perhaps unsurprising given less-than-booming UK new-car sales.
According to the UK’s Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, nationwide car sales fell by five per cent year-on-year in July, with EVs still only accounting for roughly one-in-five new registrations – stubbornly behind the Government’s target of 28 per cent for the end of 2025.
Car sales as a whole have been on a downward trend since 2016, with the RAC Foundation pointing towards the likes of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the ongoing cost-of-living crisis as two aggravating factors. Gooding also blamed what he described as “mixed messaging over the ban on the sales of new petrol and diesel models” for the public’s lukewarm response to EVs.
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