The number of electric cars licensed in January jumped 40%

Drivers in Ireland seem to be increasingly favoring energy-efficient options, as the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that 2,531 electric cars were licensed for the first time in January. A 40% jump compared to the same month last year.

This means that 15% of all new cars licensed in January 203 were electric, up from 11% in January 2022. On the other hand, figures indicate a 6% uptick overall for new cars, including private and goods vehicles at 20,303 last month, 5,819 of which were petrol cars.

Taking note of used car licenses however, last month saw a decrease by 9% from 3,362 to 3,686 compared with January 2022.

Despite a small drop in the number of new diesel cars licensed compared to last year, the CSO figures released show that one fifth of all new private cars licensed in January 2023 were diesel.

Toyota was the most popular make of new private cars licensed during this time. In other CSO figures, the amount of diesel cleared by Revenue in 2022 rose 6% compared to the previous year, but fell by 2.5% compared with pre-pandemic levels.

The annual clearances of petrol last year climbed 13% higher than in 2021 but were also 11% lower than in 2019.