Society of the Irish Motor Industry (Simi) director general Brian Cooke said he was disappointed with the level of electric vehicle sales in the State. He noted that people had concerns over the cost of the the vehicles and the possible limits to their driving range.
Only 1,259 new electric cars were registered in August this year which compares to 1,782 registered in the same month last year , a 29.3 per cent drop.
Sales of electric vehicles have dropped by 25.3 per cent on the figure year to date, falling to 15,129 new registrations. It is a significant fall from the same figure in 2023 when 20,266 electric vehicles where registered across the country, new data from The Society of the Irish Motor Industry (Simi) shows.
Registrations overall for new cars decreased by 8.4 per cent in August compared to the same period last year, according to the the data. The data saw registrations last month drop to 7,567 from 8,261 over the same period last year. Mr Cooke said August was the sixth consecutive month of falling car registrations in the State.
Car registrations are also down 0.9 per cent compared to the same period last year.
In advance of the upcoming budget, Mr Cooke said an extension to benefit-in-kind incentives around EV products should be considered , grants for purchasing electric vehicles should return to 2022 levels until the EV market recovers and more charging infrastructure for electric vehicles should be established..
Every county across the State has seen a decrease in EV sales with the largest percentage change seen in Cavan, dropping 52.38 per cent, according to Simi.
More than 50 per cent of the electric vehicles registered in 2024 year to date were registered in Dublin with only 0.2 per cent of the registration in Leitrim and 0.3 per cent in Longford.
Petrol engines continue to be the most popular this year so far with 31.37 per cent of the market. Diesel engines are in second at 23.06 per cent while hybrid engines stand at 20.94 per cent. Electric vehicles and plug in electric hybrids take up smaller slices of the marketplace at 13.49 per cent and 9.57 per cent, respectively.
Registrations of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) are down by 41.5 per cent to 172 sales over August this year. However, year to date the category has risen by 11.2 per cent with 2,466 sales recorded.
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