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The great diesel-electric divide: who’s driving what where you live?

Vehicle ownership is falling in London, diesel sales are soaring in places with no eco rules, and electric cars are booming in poorer areas

Nicholas HellenRachel Lavin
The Sunday Times

There are 33.2 million cars on the road in the UK, a number that has risen every year since the Second World War apart from two.

That long-term trend has now been reversed across British cities, with official figures revealing that car ownership has fallen significantly in places most affected by measures to reduce pollution, congestion and speeding.

In inner London, the number of cars licensed fell by 18,841 and, in Greater London, by 66,894 between 2019 and 2022, according to the DVLA. Car ownership in four boroughs dropped by at least 5 per cent, with the biggest drop, of 6 per cent, in Camden, from the three years to the third quarter of 2022.

In April 2019, a clean air policy known as the