Sales (well, actually technically registrations) of new cars in Ireland fell in February, by 15 per cent. That sounds like a massive drop, but it can be partly accounted for by the fact that February 2025 had one fewer trading days than February 2024.
Total sales down by 0.8 per cent
Even so, it will be a worrying figure for the Irish motor industry as consumers do seem to be tightening their belts across the board at a time of enormous and scary global uncertainty. 14,012 new cars were registered last month, compared to 16,432 in February 2024. It means that new car sales (ahem, registrations), having soared in January, are now actually slightly down, by 0.8 per cent, for the year to date.
However, electric car sales are racing ahead once again. In February, 2,524 new electric cars were registered, 36 per cent higher than the 1,856 registrations in February 2024. So far this year, 7,447 new electric cars have been registered, representing a 25.1 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2024, when 5,949 electric cars were registered.
Importance of Government supports
Brian Cooke, Director General of the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI), commented: “Following a strong start in January, new car registrations have seen some retraction in February, with registrations declining by 15 per cent, while year to date registrations are now marginally behind last year. However, going against this trend has been electric vehicles, with an increase in EV sales of 36 per cent in February to 2,524 units, with private consumers, who benefit from the SEAI Grant, contributing two thirds of EV sales this year. The importance of Government supports is key to maintaining this momentum, particularly with a greater range of EVs coming on stream. Commercial vehicle registrations have seen a decline, with LCV sales, which had been down in January, also down by eight per cent in February, and HGVs registrations down three per cent.”
The light commercial vehicles (LCV - vans, basically) sales figure will be the most worrying, as it’s a good indicator of underlying economic activity. It may mean that businesses are putting vehicle-buying decisions on the back burner, fearful of economic issues if the housing market trips up once again or if the outfall from Donald Trump’s slash-and-burn economic policies starts to bite here.
Electric now way ahead of diesel market share
In the new car market share by engine type for 2025, Petrol cars continue to lead the new car market at 27.88 per cent, followed by Hybrid (Petrol Electric) at 23.76 per cent, diesel at 16.65 per cent, electric at 15.68 per cent, and plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV) at 14.30 per cent.
Since 1 January, Toyota has been the top-selling brand, followed by Hyundai, Volkswagen, Skoda, and Kia. The best-selling cars so far this year are the Hyundai Tucson, the Toyota Yaris Cross, the Toyota RAV4, the Skoda Octavia, and the Kia Sportage.
The best-selling brands in the electric car sales charts so far this year are Kia, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Tesla, and Nissan.
The best-selling EV models are the Volkswagen ID.4, the Kia EV3, the Tesla Model 3, the Kia EV6, and the Hyundai Kona.
The best-selling car in February was the Hyundai Tucson, while the best-selling EV was the Tesla Model 3.