Electric vehicles accounted for 20 per cent of the rising number of cars licensed in July, the Central Statistics Office said. July is an important month in the motor industry calendar as 252-registered cars come on to the market for the first time.
The number of new private cars licensed in July 2025 was 8 per cent higher compared to 2024, according to the CSO, at 19,923. Of that, almost 4,000 were electric vehicles, a rise of 64 per cent year on year.
EVs accounted for almost 20 per cent of the new cars licensed during the month, with plug-in hybrid vehicles at 15 per cent.
Petrol cars remain the most popular, at 5,030, but that figure is 13 per cent year lower than at the same time last year, while diesel also showed a decline to 3,242, or a 22 per cent fall-off.
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The combined share of petrol and diesel cars has fallen to 44 per cent compared to 56 per cent in 2024 over the seven months.
Electric vehicles have continued to grow in popularity despite concerns over charging infrastructure. The share of EVs among new private cars licensed between January and July 2025 was 17 per cent, up from 14 per cent in 2024.
Plug in hybrids have also become increasingly popular rising from 9 per cent over the same period in 2024 to 15 per cent, and up 56 per cent in the month.
“In the first seven months of 2025, there was a rise of 34 per cent in new private electric cars licensed when compared with the same period in 2024,” said Damien Lenihan, a statistician in the transport section of the CSO.
“There were 26,454 new petrol cars licensed compared with 30,911 in the same period of 2024, a fall of 14 per cent. Comparing the first seven months of 2025 with 2024, the number of new diesel cars licensed decreased by 23 per cent.”
Toyota was the most popular make of new private vehicle last month, followed by Volkswagen, Hyundai, Škoda and Kia.
The Volkswagen ID4 topped the list of popular cars, with Hyundai’s lower cost Inster in second place.
The number of used imported cars licensed also rose, increasing by 17 per cent compared to July 2024, to 6,640.
