What 30 years of DVLA data reveals about the changing face of UK roads

The UK automobile market has changed considerably over the past three decades. With the emergence of battery electric, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and other next generation vehicles – building on early electric vehicle designs created in the late 1800s – the landscape that motor insurers operate in continues to rapidly evolve.

Insurance Times has therefore analysed 30 years of vehicle data from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) in order to understand how British roads have changed and how this has affected the insurance industry.

Between 1994 and 2024, the number of registered vehicles in the UK grew by 60.4%, up from 25.1 million to 40.4 million. 

That equates to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1.6%, or a net average of 630,000 new cars entering the transport ecosystem each year.

Many Brits feel that the UK’s road network has not kept pace with this increased volume of vehicles, with initiatives such as smart motorways and dynamic hard shoulders being criticised for driver safety concerns and low public confidence.

For example, March 2025 research conducted by motoring organisation The AA found that 30% of the 13,500 drivers polled feel a lot less safe on any form of smart motorway than they did three years ago.

Three-fifths of respondents, meanwhile, want the smart motorway network converted back into a traditional format, featuring a permanent hard shoulder rather than a dynamic one that can be turned on or off during peak times to create an additional driving lane.

Battery leapfrogs plug-in hybrid

Since the 1990s, when the overwhelming majority of cars were either petrol or diesel, the fuel type of new vehicles has largely changed, according to Insurance Times’ analysis.

Petrol is still the dominant fuel type, accounting for 728,000 newly registered cars in 2024. However, hybrid petrol vehicles – cars that have no external electric input, but instead charge an internal battery with the energy generated from braking – are now the second most common in the UK, with 557,000 registrations last year.

Battery electric – cars that use battery stored energy as their sole source of power – are the third most common fuel type, with 375,000 of these vehicles hitting the roads in 2024. Diesel cars and plug-in hybrids accounted for just 124,000 new registrations.

The composition of direct charging vehicles has also changed. Between 2015 and 2020, more plug-in hybrid cars were seen on UK roads than battery electric cars in every quarter.

Plug-in hybrids, which can either be fuelled directly from the pump or charged at charging stations, were then overtaken by battery electric cars in the first quarter of 2021.

Battery electric cars have seen a dramatic uplift since that point, with vehicles such as the Tesla Model Y, Audi Q4 e-tron, Tesla Model 4 and MG4 all selling more than 20,000 units in 2024.

Battery powered vehicles have presented a different risk profile for insurers to consider in recent years, with fires or thermal runaways, electric shocks, battery leaks and software vulnerabilities being added to the traditional list of automobile risks.

Many next generation cars, such as the aforementioned models, offer partial or full self-driving capabilities, such as lane assist and adaptive cruise control. The UK government is hoping to fast track the adoption of this type of technology using new legal frameworks and trial periods.

For example, the Automated Vehicles Act received Royal Assent in May 2024, setting the legal framework for self-driving cars. This includes safety standards and insurance requirements. At this time, the Department for Transport predicted that automated vehicles will feature on the UK’s roads by 2026.

Former transport secretary Mark Harper said: ”Britain stands at the threshold of an automotive revolution and this law is a milestone moment for our self-driving industry, which has the potential to change the way we travel forever.   

”While this doesn’t take away people’s ability to choose to drive themselves, our landmark legislation means self-driving vehicles can be rolled out on British roads as soon as 2026, in a real boost to both safety and our economy.”

Ageing fleet

Perhaps a more concerning issue for insurers, however, is that the average age of cars in the national fleet has increased from 6.7 years in 1994 to 9.6 years in 2024.

Modern cars may be lasting longer than their older counterparts due to factors such as improved manufacturing and engineering practices, easily accessible onboard diagnostics, servicing alerts and advances in materials, fluids and lubricants.

Newer cars are also more likely to have advanced safety features, such as automatic emergency breaking, lane keeping alerts and parking assist cameras – prompting insurers to rethink how they assess risk across an ageing, unevenly equipped fleet.