The latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show a 31% increase in the number of electric cars licensed for the first time in March compared to the same month last year.
The CSO said a total of 2,473 EVs were licensed last month, up from 1,884 the same month last year.
It also reported strong growth in the licensing of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) which rose to 1,195 in March last year to 2,202 vehicles in March this year.
This means the share of EVs among new private cars increased to 17% in March compared with 13% in the same month in 2024.
Today’s CSO figures show that the total number of new private cars licensed in March decreased by 4% compared to the same month last year – 14,388 compared to 14,916.
But the number of used (imported) cars licensed increased by 12% to 5,917 from 5,280 over the same period.
In the first three months of this year, the CSO said that 13,498 new cars licensed were petrol compared with 15,284 in the same time of 2024, a fall of 12%.
Comparing the first three months of 2025 with 2024, the number of new diesel cars licensed fell by 25% to 8,609 from 11,512.
The CSO said that Toyota was the most popular make of new private car licensed in March with 2,101 vehicles sold, followed by Volkswagen (1,521), Skoda (1,416), Hyundai (1,119), and Kia (1,059).
Together, these five makes represented 50% of all new private cars licensed in March.
Meanwhile, the most popular brand of new electric car licensed in March 2025 was Tesla Model 3 (231), followed by Volkswagen ID.4 (205), and Kia EV3 (148)
