New figures from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry show that electric vehicle (EV) sales had a record-breaking month in January.
SIMI said a total of 4,925 EVs were registered in January, a 20% increase when compared to the 4,093 EVs registered the same month last year.
Today’s SIMI figures also show that new car registrations for January were up 7% to 33,521 compared to the 31,407 cars registered in January of last year.
Imported Used Cars also saw a 5% rise in January of this year – increasing to 5,604 from 5,325 the same month last year.
But Light Commercial vehicles (LCV) are down 16% to 6,270 compared to last year’s figures of 7,478, while HGV (Heavy Goods Vehicle) registrations are up 8% to 489 from 454 last year.
In the new car market share by engine type, SIMI said that petrol cars remain the leader at 28.24%, followed by hybrid (petrol electric) at 24.89%, diesel at 16.31%, electric at 14.69% and plug-in electric hybrid at 14.17%.
Brian Cooke, SIMI Director General, said the the new car market has started positively, but notably, battery technology cars (BEV, PHEV, HEV) all saw significant growth, with their combined market share reaching 55% of the market.
“In particular, Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) sales surged in January, with 4,925 registrations, up 20% on the same period last year, the highest monthly total number of EVs sold, although their overall market share of 15% has yet to reach 2023 levels (19%),” Mr Cooke said.
“The underlying EV market continues to be dependent heavily on private sales which benefit from SEAI grant support, highlighting the importance of ongoing Government incentives to help stimulate the market,” he said.
“However, while there is cautious optimism over the trajectory of EV sales, one good month of sales does not necessarily define the whole year, and we still have a long way to go in the transition to electrification,” he cautioned.
He said the supply of EVs is there, with more newer EV models coming on stream across a range of price-points, so the focus must be clearly on supporting demand in what is still a relatively new market.
Today’s SIMI figures show that the ten top selling new car brands so far this year were Toyota, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Skoda, Kia, Peugeot, Nissan, Ford, Dacia and Audi.
The top ten new car models sold in January were the Hyundai Tucson, the Toyota Yaris Cross, the Kia Sportage, the Toyota RAV 4, the Hyundai Kona, the Skoda Octavia, the Toyota Corolla, the Toyota C-HR, the Skoda Kodiaq and the Toyota Yaris.
Meanwhile, the ten top selling new electric vehicles Brands in January were Volkswagen, Kia, Hyundai, Nissan, Peugeot, Volvo, BYD, MG, Ford and Skoda.
The ten top selling new electric vehicle models were the Volkswagen ID.4, the Kia EV3, the Hyundai Kona, the Kia EV6, the Nissan Leaf, the Skoda Enyaq, the Volvo EX30, the MG MG4, the Ford Explorer and the Hyundai Ioniq 5.
Article Source – New electric vehicle registrations up 20% in January – SIMI – RTE
