New electric car sales up by 46% so far this year, figures show

Tomas Doherty

The growth in electric car sales in Ireland continues with new figures showing a 46 per cent increase in registrations so far this year.

The number of new electric cars has increased from 6,748 in the first four months of 2022 to 9,828 in the same period this year, according to the Central Statistics Office.

It means 17 per cent of all new cars this year were electric compared with 13 per cent in the same period in 2022.

More widely, petrol car sales have also increased by 45 per cent, with 20,265 new petrol cars compared with 14,015 in the same period in 2022.

At the same time, the number of new diesel cars decreased by 7 per cent.

The number of used cars licensed so far this year has increased by 5 per cent compared with last year.

There have been 5,779 used (imported) diesel cars licensed so far this year, compared with 5,974 in first four months of 2022, a fall of 3 per cent.

Data also shows that Volkswagen (1,409) has been the most popular make of new private car so far this year, followed by Toyota (1,346), Skoda (1,054), Kia (900) and Peugot (613). Together, these five makes represent just under a half (47 per cent) of all new private cars.