Electric car sales surge 110% in April amid fuel protests and rising pump prices

Michael McAleer

Sales of new electric cars rose by 110 per cent last month compared to the same month last year. Amid fuel protests and concerns over rising pump prices, sales of diesel cars dropped 30 per cent from last year.

April’s sales figures underline a rapid shift away from diesel and petrol models. So far this year, plug-in cars – either EVs or plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) – now account for 37 per cent of new car sales, compared to 21 per cent for petrol and 13 per cent for diesel.

Total new car sales so far this year are up 2.15 per cent, with 75,074 new registrations, according to figures from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI).

SIMI director general Brian Cooke said that, despite the strong performance in EV sales this year, the market share for electric cars and plug-ins is still below the level required to meet national climate targets.

"The momentum behind the EV project is there, and we must build on this," he said. "Now is not the time to reduce [financial] supports. The Government must maintain and extend current incentives for consumers and businesses while investing in infrastructure, along with a range of targeted measures to encourage widespread EV adoption before 2030."

Toyota remains the best-selling new car brand with 14.7 per cent of the new car market after registering 10,386 cars, significantly ahead of Volkswagen (7,909), Skoda (7,193), and Hyundai (6,926).

Premium brand Audi is now the sixth best-selling new car brand in Ireland, with 2,871, ahead of the likes of Ford and Nissan, while BMW ranks ninth, outselling Renault and Peugeot.

Toyota’s Yaris Cross remains the best-selling new model on the Irish market with 2,518 registrations, slightly ahead of Hyundai’s Tucson with 2,373, and Kia’s Sportage with 2,204.

Hyundai leads the EV market with 2,103 registrations, benefitting from 660 sales of its Inster city car and 567 for its Kona EV.

However, VW’s ID.4 remains Ireland’s best-selling EV, with a commanding lead of 1,231 registrations, ahead of Kia’s EV3 with 666.

Among the brands performing strongly so far this year, BYD sales are up 95 per cent, putting it in 12th place with 2,397 registrations, driven by strong sales of its Seal U and Sealion 7 crossovers. Citroen also doubled its sales year on year, due to the arrival of its new C3 supermini.

As a result of the growth in EVs and PHEVs, automatic transmissions now account for 79.5 per cent of new car sales. And while grey and black remain the favoured colours for new cars, 4,331 green cars were registered, up 51 per cent on last year, while the number of new brown cars has more than doubled to 1,020 so far this year.

The total vehicle fleet in the State was 3,307,717 at the end of March, according to CSO data, of which 122,562 were fully electric. That equates to 3 per cent of the State’s vehicle fleet being EVs. Of these, 112,190 were private cars.

While 6.9 per cent of Dublin-registered cars are now EVs, they account for less than two per cent of cars registered in Monaghan, Mayo or Roscommon.

Regular hybrids totalled 225,512, while there were 105,067 plug-in hybrids by the end of March.

Diesel remained the largest cohort in the national fleet with 1,892,137 vehicles, of which 1,268,377 are private cars.

Petrol cars accounted for 955,403, including 859,810 private cars.