IRISH CAR SALES of new electric vehicles fell by nearly 24% last year, motor industry figures have revealed. 

The Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) released their official new vehicle registration statistics for 2024. 

One key finding for the year just gone is that 17,459 new electric cars were registered in 2024, a decrease of 23.6% from the 22,852 registrations seen in 2023.

The State cut a grant paid by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) for buying an EV was cut from €5,000 to €3,500.

Brian Cooke, Director General of SIMI said he believes there will be an increase in electric vehicle sales this year. 

“The key feature of the 2024 new car market was the decline in Electric Vehicle sales, a reduction of 24% compared to 2023.

“There has however been some tentative signs of a turnaround in EV sales towards the end of 2024, and the Industry is anticipating an increase in EV sales in 2025,” he said. 

The total new car registrations for 2024, finished at 121,195, a slight decrease of 1% compared to 2023 of 122,400.

New Light Commercial Vehicle registrations in 2024 saw an increase of 7% (30,786) compared to 2023 (28,854). New Heavy Commercial Vehicle registrations, large trucks and trailers increased by 8% (2,865) in comparison to 2023 (2,655).

Imported Used Cars saw 61,583 registrations in 2024, an increase of 21.4% on 2023 (50,716).

“The start of the new registration period, 251, this week, is an optimistic time for the Irish Motor Industry. With the variety of incentives and offers from retailers and manufacturers it is a good time for customers to shop for a new or used car,” Cooke added.

The cars bought were mostly petrol which recorded 30.31%, diesel 22.80%, hybrid 20.92%, electric 14.41%, and plug-in hybrid 10.02%.

Automatic transmissions now account for 66.09% of the market share, while manual transmissions have declined to 33.80%.

The hatchback continues to remain Ireland’s top-selling car body type of 2024. While grey has retained the top-selling colour title for the ninth year running.