NAA Update: Electric car sales up in October, but watch out for the Budget
A quarter of buyers opted for electric cars in October 2025, putting this year’s ZEV tally ahead of the whole of 2024 with two months still to go, but just as EV sales make real progress, at the same time there are government proposals to scrap Employee Car Ownership Schemes (ECOS), and the possibility of pay-per-mile taxation for EVs. The details of these proposals are expected to be confirmed in the forthcoming Budget (26 November).
Let’s begin with the latest data published by the SMMT last week on the UK new car market, which held steady in October, just pushing into growth territory with a 0.5% uplift. In even better news, a quarter of buyers opted for electric cars, putting this year’s ZEV tally ahead of the whole of 2024 with two months still to go. The overall market is also on course for annual growth with the latest industry outlook expecting it to top two million units for the first time since 2019. Such growth is sorely needed, yet it is now at risk from proposals to scrap Employee Car Ownership Schemes (ECOS), which accounts for approximately 100,000 new cars a year, and the possibility of pay-per-mile taxation for EVs reported last week, entirely the wrong measure at the wrong time, undermining manufacturer efforts to reach already challenging ZEV Mandate targets.
The impact of September’s unprecedented cyber-attack on the UK’s biggest automotive employer was, patently, stark – and while output is recovering after enormous efforts, the supply chain remains under strain. The Cyber Monitoring Centre, an independent body set up to categorise UK cyber events, has released its statement on the JLR cyber incident, categorising it as a Category 3 event, on a scale that runs from one to five based on the percentage of UK businesses impacted and the financial impact of the event. See here for the full report: Cyber Monitoring Centre report
Moving on to the membership side, we would like to welcome three new members:
G&P Quality Management – G&P is a world leading quality management services provider, working with manufacturers across the automotive, aerospace, defence and industrial sectors, and their associated supply chains, to transform quality and efficiency levels.
Oemeta – A certified family business in its fourth generation, specialising in the development and production of innovative metalworking fluids for machining purposes.
Parker Neal – Founded by experienced security professionals, Parker Neal specialises in delivering right-sized cyber security solutions tailored to your business’s scale, sector, and resources. Parker Neal believe cyber security should be accessible, understandable, and affordable for every business – not just large enterprises with in-house IT teams. They support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with the tools, knowledge, and confidence they need to become cyber resilient.
We’re looking forward to working with each of these new members and welcoming them to our on-going networking event programme during the course of this year.
Paul Jones
NAA CEO
