13% of new cars licensed in the first half of the year were electric, up from 7% last year - according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office.
This means the number of new electric cars licensed has almost doubled from 4,185 in the first half of 2021, to 8,309 in 2022.
When plug-in hybrid vehicles are included, the share increases to 21%, up from 14%.
The figures show a drop in the number of new private diesel cars licensed in the first six month of the year.
Just 27% or 16,732 were diesel, compared to 36% or 21,681 in the same period last year.
In total, 81,522 new vehicles were registered between January and June, up slightly on the 81,379 recorded during the same period last year.
Hyundai was the most popular make of new private cars licensed in June, followed by Volkswagen, Toyota, Skoda and Renault.
Together, these five makes represent more than half of all new private cars licensed last month.
The figures also show that the number of used cars licensed in the first half of 2022 decreased by 42% to 23,254 compared with the same period in 2021.
