New car registrations for March jumped 40.7 per cent to 12,935 compared to 9,192 for the same month last year, according to the Society of the Irish Motor Industry. However, this is still 22 per cent behind that of pre-Covid (2019 ) levels.
Last month saw 1,930 new electric vehicles registered compared to 1,034 in March 2021. So far this year, 6,244 new electric cars have been registered in comparison to 2,816 on the same period last year.
Electric powered vehicles now have a combined market share of 44.63 per cent. This is broken down as 24.56 per cent hybrid; 12.51 per cent electric; and 7.56 per cent plug-in electric hybrid. Petrol engines remain the leader at 27.4 per cent, with diesel accounting for 25.83 per cent.
New car registrations year-to-date are up four per cent, from 48,030 to 49,928. Used car imports for March decreased 35.1 per cent from 5,840 to 3,793 on March 2021. Year-to-date imports are down 36.8 per cent on 2021.
The top selling EV in Ireland so far this year is the Hyundai Ioniq 5, followed by the VW ID.4, Kia EV6, Nissan Leaf and the Tesla Model 3.
Toyota leads new cars sales in 2022, with four of the top five best selling cars to date this year coming from the brand. However, the Hyundai Tucson is the best selling model in 2022, with the Toyota’s Corolla, C-HR, RAV 4 and Yaris following in the next top positions.
Commercials
Elsewhere, Light Commercial Vehicle sales in March totalled 2,032, down 32.2 per cent on the same month last year. For the year-to-date LCV registrations are down 17.3 per cent. Heavy goods vehicle (HGV ) registrations for March were 249, down more than a quarter compared with March 2021 (336 ). For the year-to-date HGVs are down 8.4 per cent.
