Strong sales figures for electric vehicles shows power of State incentives

Electric vehicles (EVs) appear to be well on the way to dominating the Irish car market, and that trend continued in June according to data from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (Simi), the main lobby group for the sector.

According to Simi, 1,441 new EVs were registered in June – a 666 per cent increase on the 188 in June 2022. That takes the total of new EVs registered this year to 14,307 – about 70 per cent more than had been handled at this time last year.

EVs, plug-in hybrids and regular hybrid cars now account for about 43 per cent of the Irish car market. That’s well ahead of the 31.9 per cent share of petrol and the 21.9 per cent share of diesel. Still, petrol is the dominant single category. That probably shouldn’t be surprising at this stage. Reports of issues with the nation’s EV charging infrastructure are ten a penny these days.

Car sales are one of those statistics that are interesting by themselves, but can also be a leading indicator of the health of an economy, or at least consumer confidence. After all, people feeling safe in their finances are much more likely to invest thousands of euro in a new car than someone concerned about the future.

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To that end, the Simi data points to some optimism in the country, despite signs of economic slowdown. Registrations in June were up 39 per cent year on year at 2,994. So far this year registrations are up nearly a fifth at 77,488 nationwide.

While registrations are about 4 per cent below 2019, before the pandemic hit, that gap is closing every month, according to Simi director general Brian Cooke.

The jump in EV sales may be “a result of EV buyers wanting to avail of the full SEAI grant of €5,000, which is to be reduced from July 1st”, he said.

Even with the grant being cut, though, there are still plenty of incentives to switch to an EV, including lower car tax and VRT relief. Government incentives still work, and EV sales are likely to keep increasing as a result.