September could be on course to be a record month for electric car sales in the UK after manufacturers, led by Tesla, increased the attractiveness of finance offers.

Car makers are scrambling to hit the target set by the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate that calls for 22% of new car sales to be electric this year. Some flexibility is available – for example, via increased sales of plug-in hybrids – but many key manufacturers including the Volkswagen Group, Ford, Toyota and the Renault Group are pushing hard to raise EV sales and avoid fines after selling significantly below their target in the first half of the year.

Discounts on the price of an electric car are running at around 9.6% – equivalent to an average of £5596 – the What Car? Target Price team calculated at the beginning of the month.

However, Tesla’s September push is the one that’s expected to really move EV sales in the plate-change month, with an eye-catching personal lease offer of £299 a month on the Model Y. The Y is the UK’s biggest-selling electric model this year to the end of August, according to SMMT figures.

Tesla’s direct-sales model fixes the price of the cars but the US company has more flexibility when it comes to finance, hence the generous three-year, 30,000-mile deal. With the down payment, it works out at £424 a month, less than the price of Hyundai’s lease deal on a Kona small electric SUV with the 65kWh battery. The Model Y is two classes bigger than the Hyundai.

To take advantage of the offer, Tesla buyers must take delivery before of the end of the month, which also marks the end of the financial quarter for the company. Tesla ships in stock and typically buyers pick up the cars from whichever dealer holds the car closest to the spec the customer requires.

One buyer posting on Reddit this week noted the number of Model Ys at Southampton Docks, where they picked up their new car. “I was amazed at how many cars there were, firstly in a multi-storey, and then in two big car parks on either side of the road running through the docks area,” the buyer wrote.

A big push from Tesla can easily lift overall EV sales, as we saw in August. The Model 3 and Model Y were the two biggest-sellers in what was a record EV month, pushing the brand to first place in the electric charts and outselling second-placed BMW by two to one. That contrasted with July, when BMW was the top EV seller, both in the UK and across Europe.

Last month, electric registrations hit 23% of overall car sales, according to the SMMT, making it the first month the UK exceeded its EV target for the year.

September could be on course to be only the second month in the UK to break the 50,000 mark for EV sales. September is typically a big sales month, like March, due to the numberplate change. The record EV sales month was March 2022, with 52,200 sold.

Steep discounts along with generous company car incentives are helping to overcome buyer wariness of EVs. Retail discounts being offered include £6750 off the price of a new Audi Q4 E-tron if the buyer chooses the PCP finance deal. Audi was the leading discounter overall across all fuels, according the September What Car? Target Price report, at an average discount of £8553 per car.

Other electric deals include £3500 off the new price of a Honda e:Ny1, again linked to a PCP deal.

Generous personal leasing deals for electric cars are evident on aggregator sites such as leasing.com. Offers there at the time of writing included £277 a month for a Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer EV with £833 down on a three-year deal at 10,000 miles a year. On the same terms, the Lexus RZ 450e was available for £481 a month with zero down payment, putting it close to the Tesla Model Y on price. More Lexus EV sales will help owner Toyota achieve its overall target.

Dealer group Vertu reported in early September that electric vehicle supply “remains strong” as car makers seek to boost their EV share. However, the group also said that profit margins have been put under pressure from “significant discounting”. Vertu, which incorporates Bristol Street Motors, has claimed car makers are throttling back combustion-engine vehicle supply to help them hit EV targets.

Stellantis has publicly criticised the UK's ZEV mandate for 2024, although significantly CEO Carlos Tavares has not joined the European automotive lobby group in calling for flexibility in the 2025 European Union CO2 restrictions, which require more EV sales to meet the new target. Next year, car makers such as Stellantis will have more budget EVs on sale, closing the price gap to combustion-engine models.