EVs now clocking up more miles per year than petrol cars

EV owners are now driving more miles every year than those running petrol cars, according to new data.

Figures from Solera Cap HPI based on almost two million trade transactions show that the average mileage for an electric car now stands at 8,740 per year, compared with 8,296 for petrol cars.

The data flies in the face of the tired myth that EVs can’t cover longer distances and appears to show the impact that improving charging infrastructure and vehicle technology is having on EV use.

Figures from the data specialist show that in January 2015, the average EV travelled 6,355 miles per year – 2,288 miles less than an average petrol car. A decade later, in January 2025, the average annual mileage of an EV has increased to 8,740 miles per year, 444 miles more than the petrol average.

The data also reveals that since April 2023, when the average EV annual mileage total was 7,895 miles – 358 more than petrol cars, the number of EV miles has been more than for petrol cars every month since.

Solera Cap HPI’s experts say that rapidly improving technology, a wider choice of vehicles, and a drop in range anxiety among drivers boosted by improved charger accessibility had helped drive up EV mileages. They said that, at the same time, changes in working patterns, rising fuel costs and growing environmental awareness had led to a downturn in petrol car mileages, which have dropped 12% in the last decade.

Dylan Setterfield, Solera HPI’s head of forecast strategy, commented: “Our data reveals that people in the UK are driving increasingly fewer miles now than they were 10 years ago. It also shows that EV motorists now travel further in their cars than drivers of petrol cars and have been doing so consistently for almost two years.

“By generating average mileage data such as this for the whole of the UK, Solera Cap HPI is helping motorists to get the full picture of how car use is changing in line with advancing technology, rising fuel costs, growing environmental awareness and how we have generally become less reliant on cars. The data indicates that the changes in driving habits are likely to be long-lasting, reflecting that people’s day-to-day lives now involve less driving than they used to.”