New car sales up 2.4% this year driven by electric and hybrid growth

Michael McAleer

New car sales are up 2.4 per cent so far this year, helped by a surge in sales of hybrid and electric cars. While petrol sales are down 13 per cent and diesel down 22 per cent, this contrasts with a growth of nearly 18 per cent in regular hybrids, a 23 per cent growth in EV sales and a 54 per cent rise in petrol plug-in hybrids (PHEVs).

With 79,301 new registrations in the first five months of the year, petrol cars now account for 21,890 sales, ahead of regular hybrids with 18,312, diesel with 13,816, fully-electric cars with 12,392 and petrol PHEVs with 11,608.

Toyota remains the best-selling new car brand with a 14 per cent market share, ahead of Volkswagen with 11.2 per cent, Hyundai with 9.6 per cent, Skoda with 9.3 per cent and Kia with 7.8 per cent. The best-selling premium brand, BMW, sits in sixth place overall with 4.1 per cent.

The best-selling model is the Hyundai Tucson with 3,308 registrations, ahead of Toyota's Rav 4 and its Yaris Cross.

Toyota continues to dominate the regular hybrid market, with over 51 per cent market share and 9,414 registration, well ahead of nearest rival Nissan with 1,335.

In the petrol plug-in hybrid market, Hyundai is the best-seller with 2,105, just ahead of BMW with 2,010, and Toyota with 1,186 and Kia with 1,185.

In the EV market, Volkswagen remains the biggest brand, ahead of Kia, Hyundai and Tesla. VW's ID.4 remains the best-selling model, well ahead of rivals with 1,152 registrations, ahead of Kia's new EV3 in second place with 734.

In the commercial vehicle market, van and truck sales are down on last year.

Sales of new vans are down 8.8 per cent, with 17,795 registrations to the end of May. Ford remains the biggest brand with 4,361 registrations, ahead of Renault with 2,561. Sales of new tracks have fallen 16 per cent, with 1,780 registered so far this year.