New car owners increasingly opting for electric or hybrid over petrol or diesel
The popularity of
electric vehicles
(EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles continued last month as sales rose 12 per cent and 35 per cent respectively compared with the same period last year, new data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows.
The total number of new private cars licensed in May fell by 16 per cent from 10,055 to 8,403. The number of used cars licensed increased by 10 per cent from 5,592 to 6,144 over the same period.
The number of new EVs licensed in May rose by 12 per cent from 1,234 to 1,382. This means the share of EVs among new private cars from January to May was 16 per cent compared with 13 per cent in the same period of last year.
The number of new plug-in hybrid electric vehicles licensed grew by 35 per cent from 1,055 to 1,419.
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Comparing the first five months of the year, the number of new electric cars licensed has increased 26 per cent from 9,458 to 11,877, while the number of new plug-in hybrid electric vehicles licensed increased by 74 per cent, from 6,300 to 10,988 over the same period.
This increased the year-to-date share of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles among new private cars to 15 per cent from 9 per cent.
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The combined share of petrol and diesel cars among new private cars licensed from January to May has fallen to 44 per cent from 56 per cent last year.
From January to May, some 19,717 new cars licensed were petrol compared with 24,009 in the same period of 2024, a fall of 18 per cent.
Comparing the first five months of 2025 with 2024, the number of new diesel cars licensed fell by 26 per cent to 12,485 from 16,772.
The data also shows that
Volkswagen
was the most popular make of new private car licensed in May at 1,405 vehicles, followed by
Toyota
(1,020),
Hyundai
(701),
Kia
(675) and
Skoda
(674).
Together, these five makes represented more than half (53 per cent) of all new private cars licensed in the month.
The most popular brand of new electric car licensed in May was Hyundai Getz (104), followed by Volkswagen ID.4 (92), and Skoda Elroq (64).
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