New private electric vehicle sales up 36% in 2025 – businessplus.ie
The number of new private electric cars licensed in 2025 rose 36% when compared with 2024, figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show.
There were 23,398 new private electric cars licensed last year, up by more than 6,200 from 17,191 the previous year, as EVs share of the market rose from 15% to 19%.
Overall, there were 120,797 new private cars licensed in 2025, an increase of 3.5% year-on-year (116,683 in 2024).
Meanwhile, the number of used (imported) cars licensed jumped 15.8% or nearly 10,000 from 61,838 to 71,604.
Petrol and diesel cars accounted for 43% of sales after making up more than half of the market in (54%) 2024.
In the year 2025, there were 31,221 new petrol cars licensed compared with 36,433 in 2024, a fall of 14%.
The number of new diesel cars licensed decreased by 23% (20,562 vs 26,728) over the same period.
“Today’s figures from the CSO show a 36% increase in the number of new private electric cars (EVs) licensed for the first time in 2025 (23,398 versus 17,191),” said Damien Lenihan, statistician in the transport section of the CSO.
“This is despite a fall of 35% in the number of new private EVs licensed in December 2025 when compared with December 2024 (264 versus 405).
“We saw growth in the licensing of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) which were up 28% from 78 in December 2024 to 100 new private cars in December 2025.
“Annually, we saw a rise of 65% in the number of PHEVs licensed for the first time in 2025 compared with 2024 (18,237 versus 11,060).”
Data shows that Tesla was the most popular maker of vehicles licensed in December with 175 sales followed by Volkswagen (101), Toyota (60), Audi (55) and Skoda (52).
Overall, Toyota was the most popular make of new private cars licensed in 2025.
The most popular brand of new electric car licensed in December 2025 was Tesla Model 3 (92), followed by Tesla Model Y, and the most popular brand of new electric car licensed in 2025 was Volkswagen ID.4.
(Pic: Getty Images)
