New figures on car sales from the Central Statistics Office show the continued growth in the number of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles licensed here.
Today's CSO figures show the number of new electric cars licensed has increased by 46% from 6,748 in the first four months of 2022 to 9,828 in the first four months of this year.
The CSO noted that 20,265 new cars licensed were petrol cars in the first four months of the year, compared with 14,015 in the same time in 2022 - an increase of 45%.
At the same time, the number of new diesel cars licensed decreased by 7% to 12,456 from 13,340.
The CSO said today that the number of new cars licensed in April increased by 12% to 11,277 from 10,045 the same month last year.
Meanwhile, the number of used cars licensed in April of this year rose by 10% to 4,145 from 3,770 in April 2022.
The CSO noted that the number of used cars licensed in the first four months of this year rose by 5% compared with the same period in 2022 - 16,022 cars compared to 15,287.
Today's figures also show that Volkswagen was the most popular make of new private car licensed in April 2023, followed by Toyota, Skoda, Kia and Peugot.
Together, these five makes represent 47% of all new private cars licensed in April this year.
