There was a 50 per cent increase in the number of new electric vehicles licensed in the first nine months of the year, as the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has highlighted “continued growth” in the number of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles licensed in Ireland.
Vehicle licensing figures for September 2023 show that there were 6,882 new cars licensed last month, down 9 per cent compared with September 2022.
However, looking at the first nine months of the year, the 109,482 new cars licensed between January and September is up 17 per cent on the same period last year.
Commenting on the data, Dr Nele van der Wielen, statistician in the transport section of the CSO, said that figures show the “continued growth in the number of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles licensed in Ireland”.
In September, 1,496 new cars licensed were electric, making up more than one fifth (22 per cent) of all new private vehicles licensed.
In the first nine months of 2023, 19 per cent of all new cars licensed for the first time were electric compared with 14 per cent in the same period in 2022.
The number of new diesel cars licensed fell by 4 per cent in the first nine months of the year when compared to 2022, to a total of 24,058. At the same time, there was a 30 per cent increase in the number of new petrol cars licensed, reaching a total of 36,407 between January and September.
On an annual basis, the share of electric cars in the total number of new cars licensed has grown from 1 per cent in 2018 to 15 per cent 2022.
At the same time, the shares of petrol and diesel cars are falling. In 2018, 54 per cent of all new cars licensed were diesel cars, compared with 27 per cent in 2022. The share of new petrol cars has fallen from 39 per cent in 2018 to 30 per cent in 2022.
In September the number of used cars licensed reached 4,232, a 3 per cent decrease on September 2022.
The number of used cars licensed in the first nine months of 2023 increased by 4 per cent compared with the same period in 2022, from 36,140 to 37,591.
