Irish EV Sales Up 110% in April; Toyota, Hyundai Lead Market
New electric car sales in Ireland rose 110% last month, while diesel sales fell 30%. Plug-in cars now represent 37% of new car sales year-to-date. Toyota is the top brand, but Hyundai leads EV registrations, with VW ID.4 as the best-selling EV model. The government is urged to boost EV incentives to meet climate targets.
New electric car sales in Ireland surged by 110 per cent last month compared to April last year, while diesel car sales dropped 30 per cent. This shift is highlighted by plug-in cars (EVs and PHEVs) now accounting for 37 per cent of new car sales year-to-date, compared to 21 per cent for petrol and 13 per cent for diesel.
Total new car sales are up 2.15 per cent this year, with 75,074 registrations. SIMI Director General Brian Cooke noted that despite strong EV sales, their market share is still below national climate targets, urging the government to maintain and extend financial incentives and invest in infrastructure to encourage widespread EV adoption before 2030.
Toyota remains the top-selling new car brand with 14.7 per cent market share (10,386 cars), followed by Volkswagen (7,909), Skoda (7,193), and Hyundai (6,926). Audi is now the sixth best-selling brand. Toyota’s Yaris Cross is the best-selling model (2,518 registrations). Hyundai leads the EV market with 2,103 registrations, though VW’s ID.4 is Ireland’s best-selling individual EV model with 1,231 registrations.
BYD sales are up 95 per cent, placing it 12th with 2,397 registrations, and Citroen doubled sales year-on-year. Automatic transmissions now comprise 79.5 per cent of new car sales. Green car registrations increased 51 per cent to 4,331, and brown cars more than doubled to 1,020.
As of end-March, Ireland’s total vehicle fleet was 3,307,717, with 122,562 fully electric vehicles (3 per cent of the fleet), including 112,190 private cars. EVs constitute 6.9 per cent of Dublin-registered cars but less than two per cent in Monaghan, Mayo, or Roscommon. Diesel remains the largest segment with 1,892,137 vehicles, and petrol cars total 955,403.