Number of electric cars licenced doubled in first quarter

The number of new electric cars licensed in the first quarter was more than double that of the same period in 2021, new data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows.

There were 11,872 new private cars licensed in March, which represented a year-on-year increase of 11 per cent. The number of used (imported) private cars licensed decreased by 41 per cent.

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

The share of new electric-only cars licensed was more than double that of the same period in 2021 at 5,388 compared with 2,314.

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Toyota (7,713) was the most popular make of new private cars licensed in the first quarter, followed by Hyundai (5,632), Kia (3,311), Skoda (2,937 and Volkswagen (2,847). Together these five makes represented more than half (54 per cent) of all new private cars licensed in the first quarter.

Over the same period 10,609 (26 per cent) of new private cars licensed were diesel, while 89 per cent of new private cars licensed in the same period were in the A/B CO2 emissions bands – the lowest categories.

The total number of new vehicles licensed during March was 15,585 compared with 14,883 during the same month in 2021, which was an increase of 5 per cent.

In the first quarter 6,855 new goods vehicles were licensed compared with 6,852 during the same period last year.

In the first quarter of 2022, 0.3 per cent of imported private cars licensed were less than one year old, while 1,660 (14 per cent) were 10 years or older.

On a seasonally-adjusted basis, new private cars licensed decreased by 5 per cent in March compared with February. The number of seasonally-adjusted used (imported) private cars licensed decreased by 4 per cent over the same period.

There were 10,609 new diesel private cars licensed in the first quarter compared with 14,266 in the same period in 2021. For used (imported) diesel private cars, the total licensed was 4,631 compared with 12,802 in the same period last year.