A total of 9,303 new electric cars were registered in the first three months of this year - an increase of 49% on the 6,235 electric cars registered during the same time in 2022.
The latest figures from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry show that 3,421 new electric vehicles were registered in March 2023 compared to 1,924 in March last year.
Overall new car registrations for the month of March were up 37% to 17,676 when compared to a figure of 12,907 the same month last year.
Registrations year to date are up 16.5% to 58,116 on the same time last year when 49,905 new cars were registered.
Today's SIMI figures also show that imported used cars saw a 23.9% increase in March of this year, while year to date imports are up 7% to 12,474 from 11,639 in 2022.
Meanwhile, light commercial vehicles (LCV) are up 71.4% to 3,45. So far this year they have increased by 24% to 11,587.
HGV (Heavy Goods Vehicle) registrations increased by 26.4% compared to March 2022 and HGV's sales are up 42.6% to 964 so far this year.
SIMI noted that Electric Vehicle and Plug-in Hybrids and Hybrids continue to increase their market share, with a combined market share now of 24%.
But petrol continues to remain dominant (32.6%), with diesel accounting for 22.8%, hybrid 20.6%, electric 16% and plug-in electric hybrid 8%.
Brian Cooke, SIMI Director General, said that new car registrations for the month of March indicate a strong performing market with a 37% increase on the same month last year.
But he said that some of this increase is due to the fulfilment of the backlog of orders built up since the start of the year.
The March market means that new car sales of 58,116 in the first quarter of 2023 are 16% ahead of last year, but still 9% behind pre-Covid 2019.
"The Government's temporary change to Benefit-in-Kind regime for the current year, is very much welcomed by both employees and the industry, and will no doubt encourage the company car EV market", Mr Cooke said.
But he said it is vital that this enhanced threshold is extended out beyond this year.
"On the other hand, the decision to reduce the electric vehicle car grant for the July registration period is extremely disappointing at this still relatively early stage in the EV project," he added.
"It is important to underline however, that in addition to the grant support, there is still VRT relief for many EVs as well as low annual road tax, which along with the home charger grant means there is still a very strong basket of incentives available for those considering the purchase of an electric vehicle," he said.
"It is important that there is no further diminution of these EV supports over the next couple of years," he added.
Today's SIMI figures show that the five top selling car brands so far this year were Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Skoda and Kia.
The top five selling models were the Hyundai Tuscon, the Kia Sportage, the Toyota Yaris Cross, the Toyota C-Hr and the Toyota Corolla.
The top selling car in March was the Nissan Qashqai, while the top selling electric car was the Volkswagen ID.4
