AutoCensus
🚧 AutoCensus is in beta — data and features may be incomplete. Feedback welcome at [email protected]

Every car has a story. This is where it ends up.

AutoCensus is the census of the British fleet: what survives, what is fading and what has already gone, counted every quarter.

The car you learned to drive in is on record here. So is your first one, the one your family holidayed in, and the one you wish you had kept.

Try Capri · Fiesta · Sierra · Micra · Corsa

THE NATIONAL FLEET · 2026
Vehicles licensed42,207,454
Declared SORN7,034,141
Model families on record8,369
Variant records2,615,931
Families extinct on the road941

This quarter

2026 Q1 · WHAT MOVED IN THE LATEST DVLA RELEASE
Electrification Britain just passed the EV tipping point 5.14% of all 40.9m cars are battery electric, up from 4.04% a year ago, a gain of 470,000. Diesel has slipped to 36.6%. Read the full analysis → Global shift The Chinese are coming, and they are electric +43.6% Chinese brand cars year on year. 750,000 now on the road, and they were 57.6% of all net fleet growth this quarter. Read the full analysis → Every quarter The Quarter in Numbers, 2026 Q1 +140,000 cars added this quarter, yet petrol and diesel lost 257,000 between them. Read the full analysis → Policy check Is the Electric Car Grant working? +25% The electric cars the grant subsidises grew about a quarter since launch, from 647,000 to 808,000. In the three quarters before the grant existed they grew slightly faster. The excluded Chinese brands grew 49.6%. Read the full analysis →

Growing fastest

  1. Volvo Ex30 19,744 licensed +9,868 a year · +50.0%
  2. BYD Seal Design Ev 36,814 licensed +18,387 a year · +49.9%
  3. Jeep Avenger 16,006 licensed +7,753 a year · +48.4%
  4. BMW I5 8,372 licensed +3,860 a year · +46.1%

Fading fastest

  1. Peugeot 307 18,539 licensed −9,570 a year · -51.6%
  2. Citroen Xsara 17,182 licensed −8,434 a year · -49.1%
  3. Vauxhall Vectra 19,274 licensed −9,451 a year · -49.0%
  4. Peugeot 206 29,297 licensed −13,203 a year · -45.1%

Fleets of 5,000 and over, five year trend against current fleet.

Every model is somewhere on its curve

Arrival, growth, peak, decline, sometimes extinction. Four records, four points in the story.

Still climbing Qashqai GROWING NISSAN · 693,696 LICENSED At its peak now Jazz DECLINING HONDA · 351,772 LICENSED Leaving the road Fiesta DECLINING FORD · 1,322,273 LICENSED Nearly gone Metro GROWING AUSTIN · 261 LICENSED

The Red List

Model families graded like endangered species, by population, trajectory and survival against peak.

Maestro

VULNERABLE
Austin · on record since 1994
103
still licensed
326,233
peak fleet · 1994
0.03%
of peak surviving
FAMILIAR NAMES CLOSEST TO THE EDGE
Montego Austin CRITICAL 18 left of 234,688
Uno Fiat VULNERABLE 126 left of 224,994
340 Volvo VULNERABLE 150 left of 188,218
Bluebird Nissan VULNERABLE 170 left of 159,031

All 2,842 threatened families →

From the Red List

DECLINE, IN DEPTH
The last of the giants 18 left The Austin Montego peaked at 234,688. That is a 99.99% collapse. Read the full analysis → Diesel is being written off 2.5m diesel cars lost since the 2019 peak, a fall of 14%, and still shedding half a million a year. Read the full analysis → Britain is quietly giving up the manual 85% to 70% the manual's share of cars, 2014 to 2025. Automatics did the rest. Read the full analysis →

FROM THE CENSUS · 2026

The Mondeo is leaving the road

Britain's default family car peaked at 894,010 in 2004. Today 159,475 remain licensed, and the fleet is shrinking by 22,109 vehicles a year, because its drivers have moved to crossovers rather than to a successor. Read the full record →

19942025
Licensed 159,475 · latest census PEAK 894,010 · 2004

Browse by make

Ford5.2mVolkswagen3.7mVauxhall3.1mBMW2.2mAudi2.1mToyota2.0mMercedes-Benz2.2mNissan1.9mPeugeot1.7mKia1.3mHyundai1.2mLand Rover1.1m

All makes A to Z →