New figures from the Central Statistics Office today show a 64% jump in the number of electric cars licensed for the first time in July compared to the same time last year.
The CSO said a total of 3,973 new electric cars were licensed last month, up from 2,421 the same month last year, while the number of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles rose by 56% from 1,974 in July last year to 3,080 vehicles in July of this year.
The CSO noted a rise of 34% in new private electric cars licensed in the first seven months of the year compared with the same time in 2024 – 17,075 compared to 12,765.
There were 26,454 new petrol cars licensed compared with 30,911 during the same time of 2024, a fall of 14%, the CSO said.
Comparing the first seven months of 2025 with 2024, the number of new diesel cars licensed decreased by 23% to 16,681 from 21,624.
Overall, the number of new private cars licensed for July rose by 8% when compared with July last year, rising to 19,923 from 18,512.
Meanwhile, the number of used private cars licensed in July rose by 17% compared with the same period in 2024, increasing to 6,640 from 5,660.
Today’s figures also show that Toyota was the most popular make of new private car licensed in July at 2,851 vehicles, followed by Volkswagen (2,358), Hyundai (2,142), Skoda (2,093), and Kia (1,524).
Together, these five makes represented 55% of all new private cars licensed last month.
