New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the number of new electric cars licensed has increased by 65% from 8,309 in the first half of 2022 to 13,701 in the first half of 2023.
The CSO said that in the first six months of 2023, 25,446 of the new cars licensed were petrol cars compared with 17,465 in the same time in 2022, an increase of 46%.
At the same time, new diesel cars licensed decreased by 5% from 8,667 to 8,258, the CSO added.
Today’s figures show that Tesla (833) was the most popular make of new private car licensed in June, followed by Volkswagen (788), Toyota (647), Hyundai (348) and Skoda (345).
Together, these five makes represent 53% of all new private cars licensed last month.
The CSO said that in the first half of 2023, 19% of all new cars licensed for the first time were electric compared with 13% in the same time last year.
Overall, the number of new cars licensed in June increased by 48% to 5,584 compared with 3,774 the same time last year.
The number of used (imported) cars licensed in the first half of the year rose by 5% compared with the same period in 2022, increasing to 24,452 from 23,254.