Petrol remains the most popular engine type in 2025 – RTE.ie
There was a 3% rise in the number of new cars that were registered last year compared to the previous year.
According to the official figures from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI), total new car registrations for 2025 rose to 124,954.
Of those, 23,601 new electric cars were registered which is an increase of 35.1% from the 17,460 registrations seen in 2024.
The figures show that petrol remains the most popular engine type of choice for 2025, despite a decline in market share.
Electric, Hybrid, and Plug-in Hybrid vehicles have gained momentum, accounting for over 56% of the market.
Overall market share for the year saw Petrol accounting for 25.11%, Hybrid 22.48%, Electric 18.89%, Diesel 17.09%, and Plug-In Hybrid 14.82%.
Brian Cooke, SIMI Director General said the new car market in 2025 finished in line with projections and the Irish Motor Industry is optimistic for the year ahead.
“Light Commercial Vehicles sales were 7% ahead of last year, while HGV registrations were down 5% on 2024.
“Battery-electric cars reached 23,601 units, an increase of 35% on 2024, the highest level of sales annually, surpassing the previous record year of 2023, with an increase in registrations in every county. This, along with the increase in plug-in hybrid registrations, meant that Ireland comfortably surpassed the 2025 Climate Action Plan targets.
“Hybrid-electric vehicles also continued to gain momentum in 2025, while traditional fuels (petrol and diesel) have seen a decline in their market share.
According to the figures new Heavy Commercial Vehicle registrations decreased by 5.1% in comparison to 2024, while imported cars saw an increase of 16.6% in the same period.
Automatic transmissions accounted for 75.25% of the market share, while manual transmissions have declined to 24.73%.
The hatchback continues to remain Ireland’s top-selling car body type of 2025, and grey has retained the top-selling colour title for the tenth year running.
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