New electric vehicle sales continue to rise

The Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) is calling on the government to continue to support the 'EV project'.

SIMI's new vehicle registration statistics show overall registations going down last month but electric vehicle (EV) sales continuing to rise, prompting director general Brian Cooke to comment: “With an annual growth rate of 117%, the upward trend in electric vehicles is hugely positive but would not have been achieved without the availability of the generous government incentives.

“In this context, SIMI is calling on the Irish government to provide certainty and support for consumers by showing its support for the EV project.

“Any proposals to increase Vehicle Registration Tax on low emitting cars or to withdraw electric vehicle supports would only serve to have a detrimental effect reducing carbon emissions.

“With both the detail of the Climate Action Plan and Budget 2022 imminent, now is the time for government to show leadership and help motorists make the best possible choices. This means for Budget 2022, no increases in VRT, the extension of both the EV grant system and 0% benefit-in-kind (BIK) beyond the current expiry dates and, in conjunction with private enterprise, investment in a national charging infrastructure.

“As we start on the road to zero emissions transport, increasing taxes makes no sense and penalises those who want to make better environmental choices. The EV numbers this year speak for themselves; the industry has supplied the cars and the government has provided the incentives, thus allowing consumers to make strong environmental choices.

“By keeping on this pathway, we can continue to provide the retail environment to help drive down emissions.”

At 4,426, new cars registrations for September are down on the same month last year, when 5,651 were registered, but up on the September 2019 figure of 3,418.

Of those new cars registered last month, 775 were electric vehicles. That's an increase of 18% on September 2020, when 659 were registered. So far this year, 7,827 new electric cars have been registered in comparison to 3,613 in the same period last year – an increase of a whopping 117%.

Combined, electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and hybrids have increased market share to 31.22%. Diesel now accounts for 33.81% and petrol 32.32%.

Overall, 100,646 new cars have been registered year to date compared to 84,515 for the same period in 2020 (+19.1%) and 113,945 in 2019 (-11.7%).

In Mayo, 1,751 new vehicles have been registered year to date. Compared to last year, when 1,592 were registered in the same period, that's an increase of 9.99%.

Light commercials vehicles (LCVs) registrations decreased by 1,701 compared to September last year (2,250) but increased on the 1,336 registrations for the same month in 2019. Year to date, 26,533 new LCVs have been registered, an increase on last year’s 18,951 (+40.0%) and on 23,240 in 2019 (+14.2%).

Heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) saw an increase of 225 registrations in September when compared to 159 in September 2020 and 146 in September 2019. Year to date, HGV registrations total 2,261 compared with 1,801 in 2020 (+25.5%) and 2,355 in 2019 (-4%).

There were 4,952 used cars imported in September 2021 compared with 9,520 imports in September 2020 and 10,221 in September 2019. Year to date, used imports are up 4% (51,136) on 2020 (49,188) and down 38% on 2019 (82,435).

The five top selling car brands in September were: Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Skoda and Ford. The five top selling models were: Hyundai Tucson, Toyota Corolla, Toyota Yaris, Volkswagen Tiguan and Toyota RAV4.

The market share by engine type is: diesel 33.81%, petrol 32.32%, hybrid 16.26%, electric 7.78%, plug-in electric hybrid 7.18%.