Share of new electric and hybrid vehicles more than doubles

The share of new electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles out of all new registrations in the first eight months of the year has more than doubled when compared with the same period of 2020, the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show.

Electric and hybrid cars continue to grow in popularity. Just over a quarter (25.5 per cent) of all new cars licensed in the first eight months of the year were electric and hybrid cars, compared with 15.3 per cent of new cars licensed in the first eight months of 2020.

When electric and hybrid cars that both plug in and do not are combined, the number of new electric and hybrid cars licensed in the first eight months was 105.4 per cent greater than in the same period in 2020.

Electric or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles alone constituted 14.9 per cent of all new cars licensed for the first time in the first eight months compared to 6.6 per cent in the first eight months of 2020.

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In August, 8,563 new private cars were licensed in the Republic, compared with 7,360 in August 2020, which was an increase of 16.3 per cent. This compared with 7,202 new private cars licensed in August 2019.

The number of used (imported) private cars licensed fell from 8,032 in August 2020 to 5,219 in August 2021. The number of used (imported) private cars licensed is still 4,101 vehicles lower in August than in August 2019.

In the first eight months of the year, a total of 88,618 new private cars were licensed, an increase of 23.3 per cent compared with the same period last year.

The number of used (imported) private cars licensed increased by 18.4 per cent compared with the same period in 2020.

Most popular

Volkswagen (1,088) was the most popular make of new private car licensed followed by Hyundai (849), Toyota (830), Kia (708) and Skoda (672). Together these five makes represented more than half (48.4 per cent) of all new private cars licensed in August.

In the first eight months of the year, 34.4 per cent of all new private cars licensed were diesel, compared with 43.4 per cent in the same period for 2020. Some 81.3 per cent were in the A/B CO2 emissions bands.

In August, 2,618 new goods vehicles were licensed, an increase of 16.5 per cent compared with August 2020, and 119 more vehicles than in August 2019.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, new private cars licensed increased by 5.9 per cent in August compared with July. The number of seasonally adjusted used (imported) private cars licensed fell by 7.3 per cent over the same period.

In the year to date, 0.5 per cent of imported private cars licensed were less than one year old (vehicles previously registered abroad in 2021) while 6.3 per cent were 10 years old or more.

There were 30,470 new diesel private cars licensed in the first eight months of 2021, compared with 31,207 in the same period in 2020.

For used (imported) diesel private cars, the total licensed was 28,918 in the first eight months of 2021. This compared with 28,517 in the same period last year.