Irish car registrations continued their upward trend in the face of economic headwinds and continuing supply constraints. Registrations of new cars ticked up by 9.9 per cent in February 2023 compared to the same month last year.
Electric car registrations still strong
13,161 new cars were registered (sales and registrations do not always mean the same thing, of course...) in February, bringing the total for the year so far to 40,476 new cars, a 9.4 per cent rise on the same period in 2022.
Of those registrations in February, 2,219 were electric cars, adding to a total of 5,893 new electric vehicles registered since January 1st. That's a 31 per cent increase year on year, which means that although very strong, the rate of acceleration of electric car sales has tapered off somewhat.
Electric power overall does dominate the market. Combining electric, hybrid, and plug-in hybrid vehicles brings you to a 41 per cent share of the total new car market. The individual fuel-type breakdown still gives petrol the overall lead at 32.48 per cent, diesel at 23.32 per cent, hybrid at 19.16 per cent, electric at 14.56 per cent and plug-in hybrid at 7.59 per cent.
Grants for EVs still needed
Brian Cooke, Director General of the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI), said: "February new car registrations have continued on a similar pattern to January, with a 9.9 per cent increase compared to the same month last year, but still lagging 13 per cent behind pre-Covid February 2019. Sales of commercial vehicles both Light (LCV) and Heavy (HGVs), have shown a strong increase on last year. Electric Vehicles (EVs) continue to outperform the market. Increased supply, strong Government supports and the State's commitment to investing in charging infrastructure, are all essential elements in encouraging the transition to electric. Drilling into the EV sales patterns, it is important to highlight private customers, who still benefit from the SEAI Grant, account for 75 per cent of EV sales so far this year, with these sales increasing by over 40 per cent when compared to last year. On the other hand, sales of new EVs to companies, which don't benefit from the grant support, and which now attract a higher level of BIK since January, are slightly down on last year. This underlines the importance of the grant and it is vital that we that we don't interrupt consumer momentum by continuing this support at current levels beyond June."
Best-selling car and best-selling brand
So far this year, the best-selling brand continues to be Toyota, followed by Hyundai, Volkswagen, Skoda, and Kia. The best-selling model is still the Hyundai Tucson (can anyone take the top spot away from Hyundai?), followed by the Toyota Yaris Cross, the Kia Sportage, the Toyota C-HR, and the Toyota Yaris.
February's best-selling car was the Kia Sportage, while the best-selling electric car in Feb was the Volkswagen ID.4. This year's best-selling electric brand is Hyundai, followed by Volkswagen, Kia, BMW, and Nissan. This year's best-selling electric model is the Hyundai Ioniq 5, followed by the Volkswagen ID.4, the Hyundai Kona, the Kia EV6, and the BMW i4.