New figures from the Central Statistics Office reveal a 53% increase in the number of electric cars licensed for the first time in August compared with the same month in 2024.
The CSO said the the number of new electric vehicles licensed last month totalled 2,394, up from 1,568 in August of last year.
This means the share of EVs among new private cars from January to August 2025 was 18% compared with 14% in the same eight-month period of 2024, the CSO added.
Meanwhile, growth was also seen in the licensing of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) which were up 51% from 1,006 in August last year to 1,522 vehicles in August 2025.
In the first eight months of 2025, there was a rise of 36% in new private electric cars licensed when compared with the same period of 2024 - 19,469 compared to 14,333, the CSO added.
Petrol was the most popular new private car licensed from January to August 2025 with 28,431 cars, followed by hybrid cars (24,925) and electric cars (19,469).
Today's CSO figures show that 28,431 new petrol cars were licensed in August compared with 33,267 in the same time of 2024, a fall of 15%. Comparing the first eight months of 2025 with 2024, the number of new diesel cars licensed decreased by 23% to 18,215 from 23,753.
But petrol was the most popular new private car licensed from January to August 2025 with 28,431 cars, followed by hybrid cars (24,925) and electric cars (19,469).
Overall, the number of new private cars licensed for August rose by 1% when compared with August last year, increasing to 9,355 from 9,280.
The CSO also said that the number of used (imported) cars licensed increased by 12% to 6,048 from 5,408 over the same period.
The CSO said Volkswagen was the most popular make of new private car licensed in August at 1,216 vehicles, followed by Toyota (1,061), Škoda (1,000), Hyundai (725) and Kia (725). Together, these five makes represented 51% of all new private cars licensed last month.
The most popular brand of new electric car licensed in August was the Volkswagen id.4 (231), followed by the Skoda Elroq (149) and BYD's Sealion 7 (141).
