Electrified motoring rose well last month with self-charging hybrids electric cars having outsold diesel formats in the January sales period.
Hybrid electric car purchases grew strongly, largely driven by Toyota self-charging petrol hybrid models. This increase saw Toyota account for an impressive 20.9 per cent of the overall car market.
Toyota says that in January, practically all their sales were for its hybrid electric models, and the company had five models in the top ten.
In January, there were 25,093 new car sales registered, 27 percent of which were hybrid electric, with the formerly dominant diesel accounting for just 22 percent.
Petrol passenger cars made up 29 percent of new sales, just over two per cent ahead of hybrid electric (most of which are petrol hybrid engined ).
Toyota points out that when factor in all electrified models including battery electrics (11 percent ) and plug-in hybrids (eight percent ), the lower emissions hybrids and zero emissions all-electric sectors accounted for more than 47 percent of all new car sales last month.
Toyota Ireland adds that in contrast, pure fossil fuel powered cars saw a sharp decline in sales in January, with diesels dropping by more than 37 percent year on year, and petrol cars dropping by almost 18 per cent similar monthly comparison.
