After a strong start to the year, Toyota has maintained its position as Ireland’s best-selling car brand for the first quarter of 2021.
The brand says over 90 percent of all its passenger car sales are self-charging hybrids, which have low CO2 emissions and ultra-low NOX emissions.
Toyota says its market leadership underpins the mass consumer migration towards more sustainable electrified vehicles, as higher polluting diesel passenger cars fall further from favour with a 15 percent decline year on year as of March 31.
Similarly, pure petrol powered cars are down more than 12 percent year on year – according to SIMI figures.
Toyota has four models in the top 10 sellers, three of which (Corolla, Toyota C-HR, RAV4 ) are available exclusively as hybrid models.
As a powertrain that continues to grow in popularity, as of today (March 31 ), hybrid now accounts for just under 18 percent of the entire new passenger car market, representing a 42 percent year-on-year increase.
Toyota boasts the widest range of low CO2 emitting cars and lowest average CO2 in the mass market with 87g/km average across its range, in comparison to the market average of 99g/km.
“It’s really promising to see the continued growth in popularity in self-charging hybrids, which have seen impressive year on year percentage gains and now accounts for nearly one in five car sales in 2021.
“We are pleased to see the natural move away from traditional petrol and diesel cars into self-charging hybrids, that require no behavioural change from drivers. With hybrid, we are making things easier for motorists to make a difference in helping Ireland reach its Climate Action Plan targets.
“With new models like the recently awarded Yaris – the European Car of the Year 2021 – that drives in zero emissions mode for up to 80 per cent of the time in urban settings, we believe self-charging hybrids hold a vital role in improving our environmental outlook well into the future," Steve Tormey, CEO of Toyota Ireland, said.
