The drive towards electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles continued last month as both cohorts recorded significant year-on-year increases in new car licenses.
The latest data from the Central Statistics Office shows the number of new electric vehicles (EVs) licensed in February rose by 38 per cent to 2,853 from 2,067 the year before.
This means the share of EVs among new private cars increased to 20 per cent compared with 15 per cent in the same month in 2024.
The number of new plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) licensed grew by 65 per cent from 1,321 to 2,179. This has increased the share of PHEVs among new private cars from 9 per cent in February last year to 15 per cent.
The data also shows a drop in popularity for petrol with 9,593 new cars licensed in the first two months of the year, compared with 10,121 in the same period last year, representing a fall of 5 per cent.
The drop off has been even more significant for diesel, falling 22 per cent from 7,774 to 6,079 over the same period.
The combined share of petrol and diesel cars among new private cars licensed in the year-to-date has fallen from 51 per cent to 42 per cent.
Overall, the total number of new private cars licensed in February grew slightly in comparison with the same period in 2024 from 13,979 to 14,394.
On used cars, the number of new licenses increased by 9 per cent from 4,994 to 5,454 over the same period.
Some 1,450 of these were diesel, compared with 1,388 in the same period of 2024, which represented an increase of 4 per cent.
The data also shows Toyota was the most popular make of new private car licensed in February at 2,024 vehicles, followed by Hyundai (1,481), Volkswagen (1,363), Kia (1,323), and Skoda (1,083).
Together, these five makes represented 51 per cent of all new private cars licensed in February.
The most popular brand of new electric car licensed in February was the Tesla Model 3 (313), followed by Volkswagen ID.4 (248), and the Kia EV 3 (192).
