Emerging risks in UK and Ireland motor insurance, October 2026: more electric cars, a staged automated-vehicle law, and cost in the parts and glass

A larger electric fleet, still a small share of the park

The Department for Transport's vehicle licensing statistics, based on DVLA records and covering the whole United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland, were published on 23 September and run to the end of June [1]. There were 34,888,140 licensed cars in the UK, of which 2,017,093 were zero-emission, or 5.8% [1]. Across all licensed road-using vehicles the zero-emission share was 5.2%, or 2,169,589 of 42,063,529 [1].

A 34% rise in licensed zero-emission cars in a year is fast. A 5.8% share of the car park is still small. The claims implication sits in the mix, not in a headline that the fleet has already turned over. Newer cars, whether battery-electric or not, carry more sensors and more expensive parts. The official cost data already show parts running hotter than the cooled UK repair CPI of 3.7% [3]. Used car prices, which help total-loss settlements on conventional cars, fell 3.2% (favorable for insurers) in the year to September [3]. That relief should not be applied automatically to a written-off electric vehicle whose residual value is driven by the battery. This edition does not attach a single official battery-depreciation rate, because we did not have one official UK or Irish series that could be cited with the same confidence as the DVLA stock figures.

The Department also noted a revision to ultra-low-emission-vehicle classifications, which lowered recent ULEV stock figures by around 1.8% [1]. The 2,017,093 figure above is the zero-emission car count in that latest release, not the older ULEV definition.

Ireland is not included in the DVLA counts. This piece does not invent a comparable official Irish electric-car stock figure for mid-2026.

The Automated Vehicles Act is arriving in stages, not as one go-live date

The Automated Vehicles Act 2024 is UK legislation. It is being brought into force by commencement regulations rather than on a single day [2]. Further commencement regulations were made in 2026, and marketing restrictions under the Act are due to commence on 7 January 2027 [2]. Permits for automated passenger services and other provisions were commenced earlier in the year [2].

That timetable matters for product, wording and advertising reviews before January. It does not, on its own, tell you how many automated vehicles will generate claims in 2027. Licensed zero-emission cars are already in the park in known numbers. Authorised self-driving features are not yet a large, official claims volume. The useful work is to know which policies, comparison journeys and marketing claims will be in scope of the new restrictions, and to keep Northern Ireland in the UK reading of the Act.

Parts and glass are where the technology already hits the bill

The UK repair CPI cooled to 3.7% in the year to September [3]. Spare parts and accessories did not. They rose 5.1% (adverse for insurers), and tyres rose 4.9% (adverse for insurers) [3]. The ABI's average windscreen repair or replacement claim was £298 (adverse for insurers) in Q3, up 9% (adverse for insurers) on the year and 5% on the quarter [4]. Windscreen claims are a standard place for ADAS camera calibration to appear as a line item. A book that still reviews glass at a 2025 average will miss that.

The combination is specific: a growing share of newer and electric vehicles, parts inflation above the repair average, and windscreen severity up 9%. The action is not a generic "watch EVs" note. It is to reserve and review the parts, glazing and calibration lines on late-model vehicles, and to keep total-loss values for battery-electric vehicles on a different path from the falling used-car CPI.

What this means for underwriting and claims

Underwriting. A 5.8% zero-emission share is not yet a book-level mix shift, but a 34% annual rise means the 2027 and 2028 renewal cohorts will be more electric than the 2026 earned book. Rating and terms that still treat battery-electric and internal-combustion total losses as one used-value trend will drift.

Claims. The near-term money is in parts and glass, including calibration, on the vehicles that already have the sensors. The January 2027 marketing rules are a wording and product date. They are not a reason to delay those estimate checks.