UK Vehicle Finance Statistics 2026

How big is the UK car finance market?

In 2025, Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) members provided £163 billion of new finance to UK households and businesses. £122 billion of that was consumer credit, close to a third of all new consumer credit written in the UK, and £55 billion supported the purchase of new and used cars, behind more than 85% of all private new car registrations. In other words, finance is how most people in Britain acquire a car.

That momentum carried into 2026. FLA members wrote a record £13 billion of consumer finance in March 2026, and the consumer new car finance market was up 25% by value and 21% by volume in April 2026 against the same month a year earlier. Across the first five months of 2026, FLA members provided £69 billion of new finance in total, up 4% year on year.

Source: FLA, full-year 2025 figures and March 2026 monthly release.

New versus used, and how the market moved in 2026

The FLA splits consumer car finance into new and used. Through 2026 the new car side has led the recovery: new business was up 25% by value in April and 14% by volume across the first quarter, as buyers returned after the tax changes that disrupted 2025. Used car finance has been steadier and slightly softer, with volumes down around 3% in April and broadly flat across the year. Both markets matter to buyers: at Intelligent Vehicle Finance we arrange new car leasing alongside used car leasing, so the right answer depends on the customer rather than the headline.

Across the first four months of 2026, FLA members lent £42 billion to households, of which £15.4 billion supported new and used car purchases. Business investment sat alongside it: £14 billion went to businesses for machinery, equipment and vehicles, including £8.8 billion to small and medium-sized enterprises.

The UK leasing market: business versus personal

The vehicle leasing fleet reached a landmark in 2026. The British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA) April 2026 Leasing Outlook reported that the combined car and van leasing fleet had grown 12.9% year on year to 2,079,575 vehicles, passing two million for the first time. The car fleet grew 15% and vans 6.8%.

Growth is uneven, and the split tells the real story. Business contract hire (BCH) rose 10% year on year, while personal contract hire (PCH) fell 4.3% as households held budgets tighter. Salary sacrifice, an employer-run benefit scheme, was the fastest-growing part of the market at 125% year on year. The pattern is consistent across recent quarters: business demand, not private, is driving the leasing market. Intelligent Vehicle Finance is a BVRLA-member leasing broker that works across business contract hire and personal contract hire.

Source: BVRLA Leasing Outlook, April 2026 (data to end 2025).

Electric vehicles: the finance and leasing story

Electric adoption looks very different through a finance lens. The UK passed two million battery electric cars registered in April 2026 (SMMT), but new battery electric registrations were running at around 24% of the market year to date to May 2026, well short of the 33% required under the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate. May 2026 was the strongest month of the year for electric at a 27.3% share, yet three in four new car buyers were still choosing other powertrains.

Leasing is where electric take-up is concentrated. In the BVRLA fleet, battery electric cars make up 48% of the business contract hire car fleet, and three-quarters of all lease cars are now capable of zero-emission driving through electric, plug-in hybrid or hybrid powertrains. Penetration is highly uneven by channel: 83% of the salary sacrifice fleet, 47% of business contract hire, but only 18% of personal contract hire. The BVRLA attributes the gap to the favourable Benefit-in-Kind tax treatment of electric company cars, which private drivers cannot access, and which our company car tax and BIK rates guide sets out in full. New business contract hire cars now average a record-low 40.2g/km of CO2, against 107.3g/km for new personal contract hire cars.

Source: BVRLA Leasing Outlook, January and April 2026. See our electric car leasing options.

Fleet and business demand leads the market

Fleet has been the engine of the new car market throughout 2026. In June 2026 the SMMT recorded 213,166 new registrations, the best June since 2019, with fleet accounting for 59.5% of the market, roughly six in ten new cars. Across the year fleet has consistently sat around 57% to 60% of registrations, comfortably the largest buyer group, ahead of private retail buyers.

Business finance is growing to match. The FLA reported business new car finance up 18% in April 2026, and new asset finance lending to small and medium-sized enterprises up 8% over the same month. The SMMT expects 2.093 million new car registrations across 2026 as a whole. For businesses, this is the part of the market where specialist leasing brokers are most active, funding company vehicles and small fleets rather than one-off private purchases.

What the 2026 numbers mean for UK businesses and drivers

Three themes run through the 2026 data. First, finance is how Britain acquires cars: more than 85% of private new car registrations involve finance, and the leasing fleet has never been larger. Second, business is leading, with business contract hire growing while personal contract hire contracts, and fleets buying the majority of new cars. Third, electric adoption is being carried by company and salary sacrifice schemes, where the tax treatment makes the numbers work, far more than by private buyers.

For a business weighing how to fund its next vehicle or fleet, that points towards specialist, consultative advice rather than a single headline figure. The choice between business contract hire, personal contract hire, electric or combustion, and new or used depends on how a customer operates, their tax position and their cash flow. Intelligent Vehicle Finance is an FCA-authorised, BVRLA-member leasing broker that works with UK businesses and private drivers to match the vehicle and the funder to the way each customer actually runs, on a phone-first, no-pressure basis.

UK vehicle finance and leasing FAQs

Sources

Car and consumer finance figures are from the Finance & Leasing Association motor finance statistics and its monthly statistics releases. New car registration and electric vehicle figures are from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders car registration data. Leasing fleet figures are from the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association Leasing Outlook reports for January and April 2026. Figures were current at July 2026 and are refreshed as new data is published.