Annual number of electric cars licensed in January jumped 40%

Toyota was the most popular make of new private cars licensed during this period.

Drivers continue to lean toward more energy efficient vehicles as the number of electric cars licensed for the first time in January rose by 40% to 2,531 in Ireland, compared to the same month last year.

Around 15% of all new cars licensed for the first time were electric compared with 11% in January 2022, showed new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The number of new cars licensed overall, including private and goods vehicles, last month rose by 6% to 20,303.

In January 2023, 5,819 new cars licensed were petrol cars compared with 4,342 in January 2022.

Meanwhile, the number of used cars licensed in January 2023 decreased by 9% from 3,362 to 3,686 compared with January 2022.

One fifth of new private cars licensed in January 2023 were diesel which was the same as in January 2022.

There were 1,280 used diesel private cars licensed in January 2023, compared with 1,584 in January 2022, a fall of 19%.

Toyota was the most popular make of new private cars licensed during this time.

In other CSO figures, the amount of diesel cleared by Revenue in 2022 rose 6% compared to the previous year, but fell by 2.5% compared with pre-pandemic levels.

The annual clearances of petrol last year climbed 13% higher than in 2021 but were also 11% lower than in 2019.