Electric car sales take a steep drop in September

Sales of electric cars dropped 19.34% to 1,493 last month

There were 5,669 new car registrations in September, a drop of 10.3% compared to the 6,318 sold in September 2022. 

Electric vehicle sales took a nearly 20% drop in September compared to the same period last year prompting the Society of the Irish Motor Industry shows (SIMI) to call on the Government to maintain incentives for their adoption.

Data from SIMI shows there were 5,669 new car registrations in September, a drop of 10.3% compared to the 6,318 sold in September 2022. Electric car registrations dropped 19.34% to 1,493.

Despite the drop seen in September, so far this year there have been 118,369 new car registrations up 16.5% from 101,587 at the same point last year. Electric car registrations are nearly 50% higher than they were at this time in 2022, with 21,707 registered compared to 14,510.

Brian Cooke, director general of SIMI, said while there has been strong growth so far this year, the drop seen in September is “a concern”.

“New electric vehicle registrations declined by nearly a fifth when compared to September 2022, and while some of this is due to changing supply chain dynamics, there is a fear that there could be a softening in electric vehicle growth,” he said.

Given the budget is next week, SIMI is calling on the Government to maintain incentives for electric vehicles.

“In addition, with the new car market still in recovery mode, there should be no taxation increases that would dampen new car demand, and at the same time more funding should be allocated to support the roll out of a reliable charging infrastructure,” he said.

Petrol cars continue to have the largest market share at just over 30% while diesel accounts for just over 22%. Hybrid cars have 18.6% market share, while fully-electric cars have 18.3%, and plug-in electric hybrids have 8.2%.

New registrations of imported used cars was down 0.1% to 4,328. Heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) saw a reduction in registrations of 17.1% to 155.

However, both of these categories are still trending ahead of last year in terms of total number of new registrations. Year to date imports are up 2.5% to 38,339 while HGVs are up 27.0% to 2,375.

Light commercial vehicles were the only category to see an increase in registrations in September increasing 15.4% to 2,021 compared to September 2022. Year to date, new registrations are up 30.6% to 27,220.