One of five new cars sold in Ireland are electric

The import of used cars has plummeted by more than 50%

21% of all new cars licensed for the first time were electric or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

New car sales in January fell almost 7% compared to the same month last year while the purchase of used imported cars plummeted by more than 50%.

Figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show 15,814 new private cars were licensed last month, a drop of 6.7% compared with January 2021.

The data also show electric and plug-in hybrid cars continue to grow in popularity. Last month, 21% of all new cars licensed for the first time were electric or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. The share of new electric cars increased from 4.4% in January 2021 to 11.5% in January 2022. Last month, 19.7% of new private cars licensed were diesel, compared with 34.2% in the same period in 2021. 

Toyota with 3,559 new vehicles was the most popular make of new private car followed by Hyundai (2,041), Nissan (1,109), Kia (1,108) and Volkswagen (1,089). Together these five makes represent 56.3% of all new private cars licensed in January 2022.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, new private cars licensed decreased by 10.2% in January compared with December. The number of seasonally adjusted used (imported) private cars licensed fell by 2.4% over the same period. 

“The figures from the CSO show the continued growth in the number of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles licensed in Ireland," CSO statistician Nele van der Wielen said.
"The number of new electric cars licensed more than doubled from 739 in January 2021 to 1,813 in January 2022. New Plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV) cars licensed grew by 82% in January 2022 compared with January 2021 (1,507 compared with 827). At the same time, the number of new diesel cars is decreasing. At the beginning of this year, 3,116 new cars licensed were diesel cars compared with 5,801 in January 2021."