Electric cars overtake petrol and diesel as EV sale jump 49%
Michael McAleer
Electric cars are now outselling both petrol and diesel models in the new car market.
Regular petrol-electric hybrids are the best-selling new cars, accounting for 28.3 per cent of the market, followed by EVs with 21.2 per cent, petrol with 20.9 per cent and plug-in hybrids with just over 15 per cent. Diesel now has just 12.5 per cent of the new car market, largely due to the limited number of new models offered with this engine.
In what is the busiest month of the year for new car sales, 34,604 new cars were registered, 3.3 per cent up on the same month last year, according to figures from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI).
Toyota is the best-selling car brand with 5,347 registrations, significantly ahead of Hyundai with 3,805. Next up is Volkswagen (3,214), which is now being hotly pursued by its sister brand Skoda (2,982). Behind them is Kia with 2,617.
Toyota’s overall market lead is driven by its dominance of the regular hybrid market. The brand secured 4,706 petrol-electric hybrid sales last month, well ahead of Dacia in second place with 841 hybrids sold. The top five best-selling hybrids are all Toyotas.
In the plug-in hybrid market, Hyundai led with 1,100, largely due to strong demand for its Tucson PHEV, ahead of BMW on 584.
On the final day of the year, Toyota’s Yaris Cross overtook Hyundai’s Tucson to become Ireland’s best-selling new car overall last month. The little Toyota recorded 1,148 registrations, against 1,446 for the Hyundai. Kia’s Sportage followed on 1,133.
In the EV market, 7,319 new electric cars were registered – a 48.7 per cent increase year-on-year. Hyundai topped the segment with 1,086 registrations, ahead of Volkswagen, Kia, BYD, Renault and Skoda. One-time market leader Tesla is in 14th place, with 137 sales last month.
The best-selling electric cars this year are the VW ID.4, Hyundai Inster, Kia EV3, and Hyundai’s Kona EV and its Ioniq 5.
Ford also made a strong start to the year with 1,524 registrations, up 23 per cent on this time last year, boosted by demand for the recently launched Puma crossover. Other notable performers included BYD with 1,029 January registrations, and fellow Chinese brand MG with 633 sales.
At the other end of the market, there were no new Subarus or Jaguars registered last month, and just one registration for Smart, 12 for DS and 13 for Alfa Romeo.
In the premium market, Audi leads with 1,335 sales, followed by BMW with 1,055 and Mercedes with 792, while Volvo recorded 587 registrations, ahead of Lexus with 380. Porsche had 83 sales, down 45 per cent year-on-year. However, its January sales included a couple of 911 GT3s, with prices starting at over €300,000.
The growth in EVs and hybrids has led to a surge in the number of cars with automatic transmissions: they now account for 79 per cent of new cars. It is something that learner drivers will note, considering whether to bother learning to manage clutches and manual transmissions.
January also saw a 44 per cent year-on-year spike in used imports, with 8,041 registrations. The leading used imports are Volkswagen (1,811), Audi (1,092), Toyota (959) and BMW (944), with the most popular models being the VW Golf and Polo. The majority of used imports are four years or older. Japan is the main source for used imports to Ireland, accounting for 58 per cent of these cars.
In the commercial vehicle market, van sales in January were up 21.6 per cent on last year with 7,579 registrations. Ford leads the market with 1,338 registrations, ahead of Renault with 1,166. Toyota is third with 1,093 sales.
Bus sales were also up, with 120 registrations, an increase of 58 per cent on this time last year. However, in the truck market, January sales were down 17 per cent on last year with 392 heavy commercial vehicle registrations.
