Checked 01 October 2026 at 08:33 UTC. Every figure on this page is a rolling twelve month total, or a share of one, for the reason set out under how these numbers are calculated. The CSO publishes this series monthly, so the data changes far less often than this page is rebuilt.
What Ireland is buying
Share of new private cars licensed on each fuel, over the twelve months ending in the month shown. Electric passed diesel, then passed petrol, and the line that has quietly held its ground through all of it is the hybrid.
Petrol Diesel Hybrid Electric
Show the numbers
| Twelve months to | Petrol | Diesel | Hybrid | Electric |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 August | 20.0% | 12.9% | 39.7% | 27.4% |
| 2026 July | 20.4% | 13.3% | 39.6% | 26.6% |
| 2026 June | 21.8% | 14.1% | 40.0% | 24.1% |
| 2026 May | 22.1% | 14.4% | 39.7% | 23.8% |
| 2026 April | 22.4% | 14.8% | 39.8% | 23.0% |
| 2026 March | 23.3% | 15.2% | 39.8% | 21.7% |
| 2026 February | 23.8% | 15.7% | 39.4% | 21.1% |
| 2026 January | 24.4% | 16.2% | 38.6% | 20.8% |
| 2025 December | 25.8% | 17.0% | 37.8% | 19.4% |
| 2025 November | 25.8% | 17.0% | 37.7% | 19.5% |
| 2025 October | 25.8% | 17.0% | 37.7% | 19.5% |
| 2025 September | 25.9% | 17.2% | 37.6% | 19.2% |
| 2025 August | 26.2% | 17.6% | 37.6% | 18.5% |
| 2025 July | 26.6% | 18.1% | 37.5% | 17.9% |
| 2025 June | 27.5% | 19.1% | 36.6% | 16.8% |
| 2025 May | 27.4% | 19.2% | 36.7% | 16.7% |
| 2025 April | 28.6% | 19.4% | 35.7% | 16.4% |
| 2025 March | 29.3% | 20.2% | 34.3% | 16.2% |
| 2025 February | 30.2% | 21.1% | 33.1% | 15.6% |
| 2025 January | 30.6% | 22.0% | 32.3% | 15.0% |
| 2024 December | 31.2% | 22.9% | 31.1% | 14.7% |
| 2024 November | 31.3% | 22.9% | 31.1% | 14.6% |
| 2024 October | 31.4% | 23.0% | 31.0% | 14.6% |
| 2024 September | 31.6% | 23.1% | 30.5% | 14.8% |
These four do not add to exactly 100 percent in the earliest months shown. The CSO also publishes an "other fuel types" category, and the share of each fuel here is measured against the published total rather than against the sum of the named categories, which would inflate every one of them.
New cars, and the used ones arriving beside them
Monthly, and deliberately not smoothed, because the shape is the point. New registrations spike every January and July with the plate change, while used imports arrive at much the same rate all year. Over the last 12 months there were 0.70 used imports for every new car, but that average hides the swing: in 5 of those 12 months, more used cars were imported than new ones were sold.
New private cars Used imports
Show the numbers
| Month | New | Used imports |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 September | 6,110 | 5,393 |
| 2024 October | 3,994 | 5,454 |
| 2024 November | 2,024 | 5,124 |
| 2024 December | 1,044 | 3,706 |
| 2025 January | 22,484 | 4,827 |
| 2025 February | 14,394 | 5,454 |
| 2025 March | 14,388 | 5,917 |
| 2025 April | 13,033 | 5,537 |
| 2025 May | 8,403 | 6,144 |
| 2025 June | 5,259 | 5,448 |
| 2025 July | 19,923 | 6,640 |
| 2025 August | 9,355 | 6,048 |
| 2025 September | 6,723 | 6,770 |
| 2025 October | 4,096 | 6,898 |
| 2025 November | 1,901 | 6,413 |
| 2025 December | 838 | 5,508 |
| 2026 January | 24,231 | 7,028 |
| 2026 February | 13,660 | 7,654 |
| 2026 March | 15,130 | 7,955 |
| 2026 April | 11,930 | 7,732 |
| 2026 May | 11,063 | 7,519 |
| 2026 June | 5,123 | 7,714 |
| 2026 July | 20,322 | 8,508 |
| 2026 August | 10,924 | 8,084 |
Where the electric cars are
Electric share of new private cars over the last 12 months, by licensing authority. The spread is wide, and the bottom of this chart is the part worth treating carefully: see the note below on what a licensing authority actually is.
Show the numbers
| Licensing authority | Electric share | New cars |
|---|---|---|
| Wicklow | 39.2% | 3,180 |
| Kildare | 35.0% | 6,502 |
| Meath | 34.0% | 4,774 |
| Laois | 32.5% | 1,775 |
| Westmeath | 29.4% | 2,191 |
| Louth | 28.8% | 2,939 |
| Cork | 28.7% | 14,433 |
| Kilkenny | 28.2% | 2,111 |
| Dublin | 27.7% | 46,213 |
| Clare | 27.2% | 2,768 |
| Limerick | 27.1% | 4,262 |
| Kerry | 26.3% | 2,868 |
| Tipperary | 25.7% | 3,247 |
| Galway | 25.3% | 5,122 |
| Carlow | 24.8% | 1,522 |
| Offaly | 24.7% | 1,501 |
| Waterford | 24.7% | 3,142 |
| Sligo | 24.2% | 1,325 |
| Wexford | 23.3% | 4,365 |
| Longford | 21.9% | 652 |
| Mayo | 21.3% | 2,278 |
| Donegal | 21.1% | 2,721 |
| Monaghan | 20.5% | 1,082 |
| Cavan | 19.7% | 1,495 |
| Roscommon | 10.3% | 2,939 |
Left out of this chart: Leitrim. The CSO suppressed at least one month of the window there, and a suppressed cell counted as zero would show the county lower than it is.
The cars themselves
The 12 best selling new models over the last 12 months, and how much of each one's sales were electric. A model with a mixed figure is sold in more than one drivetrain, which is most of them now.
Show the numbers
| Model | Licensed | Electric | Electric share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toyota Yaris Cross | 3,369 | 0 | 0% |
| Hyundai Tucson | 3,181 | 0 | 0% |
| Kia Sportage | 3,131 | 0 | 0% |
| Skoda Octavia | 3,123 | 0 | 0% |
| Toyota Corolla | 2,731 | 0 | 0% |
| Skoda Kodiaq | 2,646 | 0 | 0% |
| Volkswagen ID.4 | 2,580 | 2,580 | 100% |
| Volkswagen Tiguan | 2,573 | 0 | 0% |
| Hyundai Kona | 2,552 | 973 | 38% |
| Toyota C-HR | 2,498 | 784 | 31% |
| Toyota Corolla Cross | 2,409 | 0 | 0% |
| Volkswagen Golf | 2,251 | 0 | 0% |
How these numbers are calculated
Four things in this data produce a plausible wrong number rather than an error. All four are handled before anything is plotted, and stated here because a number whose derivation is hidden is not evidence of anything.
- The registration plate, not the market
- Ireland changes its plate in January and again in July, and the trade waits for it. December 2025 licensed 838 new private cars; January 2026 licensed 24,231. That is a factor of twenty-nine driven by the number stamped on the plate. Every total on this page is therefore a rolling twelve month figure, which is the shortest window that contains exactly one of each plate change.
- Licensed for the first time is not sold
- This series counts cars entering the Irish fleet, not cars changing hands. A second hand car licensed for the first time here is an import: a car already registered in Ireland does not appear again when it is resold. It is also why a dealer or leasing company registering stock counts the same as a private buyer.
- A licensing authority is not where the driver lives
- The county on this chart is where the car was taxed, which for fleet and leasing registrations is the company's address rather than the driver's. Read the county chart as where cars are registered, and treat the outliers at both ends as a question rather than an answer.
- Suppressed cells are not zeros
- The CSO withholds small cells rather than publishing them. Counting one of those as zero would understate a county's total and misstate its share, so any county whose window is incomplete is left out of the chart entirely rather than shown low.
Shares are always measured against the published total for that month, never against the sum of the categories on the chart. The two are not the same number and the difference is not always zero.
Where this comes from
- New and Secondhand Private Cars (TEM27), CSO published 2026-09-10
- New Private Cars Licensed for the First Time (TEM28), CSO published 2026-09-10
Source: Central Statistics Office, read from the PxStat JSON-stat API. Contains Irish Public Sector Data licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.
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