New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the number of new electric cars licensed has almost trebled from 1,309 in the first two months of 2021 to 3,642 over the same two months in 2022.
At the same time the number of new diesel cars is decreasing. For the first two months of this year, 7,209 new cars licensed were diesel cars compared with 10,306 the same time in 2021, the CSO said.
It noted that in the first two months of this year, 21% of all new cars licensed for the first time were electric or plug-in hybrid electric.
Today's CSO figures show that overall, the number of new cars licensed in February 2022 stood at 13,643, an increase of 16.9% from the 11,672 cars licensed the same month last year.
But the number of used, or imported, private cars licensed in February dropped by 41% to 3,929 compared to the same time last year.
Hyundai was the most popular make of new private car licensed last month followed by Toyota, Kia, Skoda and Volkswagen.
Together these five makes represent 53% of all new private cars licensed in February, the CSO noted.
Today's CSO figures also show an increase of 16% in the number of new goods vehicles licensed in February 2022 compared with the same time last year.
