Market share of electric cars almost triples in January and February

The popularity of new electric cars continued to grow in January and February, with their market share of new licensed vehicles almost three times that of the same period in 2021, according to data from the Central Statistics Office.

The figures also show that, overall, there were 13,643 new private cars licensed in February, which represented an increase of 17 per cent compared with the same month last year.

The number of used (imported) private cars licensed in February was 3,929, which represented a drop of 41 per cent when compared with February 2021.

Electric and plug-in hybrid cars continued to grow in popularity. In the first two months of this year, 21 per cent of all new cars licensed for the first time were electric or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

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Looking exclusively at electric-only cars, the share of new electric cars licensed was almost three times that of the same period in 2021 (3,642 compared with 1,309).

The licensing figures also show that Hyundai (2,088) was the most popular make of new private car licensed, followed by Toyota (2,044), Kia (1,188), Skoda (1,065) and Volkswagen (873).

New private cars

Together, these five companies represented 53 per cent of all new private cars licensed in February.

In the first two months of this year, 24 per cent of new private cars licensed were diesel, compared with 36 per cent in the same period in 2021. Of new private cars licensed in the same period, 89 per cent were in the A/B CO2 emissions bands.

There was an increase of 368 (16 per cent) in the number of new goods vehicles licensed in February compared with the same month last year.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, new private cars licensed increased by 21 per cent in February compared with January. The number of seasonally adjusted used (imported) private cars licensed fell by 7 per cent over the same period.

In the first two months of the year, 43 per cent of imported private cars licensed were up to six years old, while just 0.2 per cent were less than one year old.

There were 7,209 new diesel private cars licensed in the first two months of the year compared with 10,306 in the same period in 2021. For used (imported) diesel private cars, the total licensed was 3,126 compared with 8,906 in the same period last year.