April new car registrations up 14% — Electric Vehicles power ahead

The Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) have released their official 231 new vehicle registrations statistics for April.

New car registrations for the month of April were up 14% (8,941) when compared to April 2022 (7,857). Registrations year to date are up 16.0% (67,018) on the same period last year (57,762).

Light Commercial vehicles (LCV) are up 33.3% (2,153) compared to April last year (1,615) and year to date are up 25.3% (13,734). HGV (Heavy Goods Vehicle) registrations are also showing an increase of 35% (243) in comparison to April 2022 (180). Year to date HGV’s are up 41.0% (1,207).

Imported Used Cars seen a 9.1% (3,839) decrease in April 2023, when compared to April 2022 (4,222). Year to date imports are up 2.8% (16,312) on 2022 (15,861).

For the month of April 1,870 new electric vehicles were registered compared to 1,280 in April 2022 (+46.1). So far this year 11,164 new electric cars have been registered in comparison to 7,515 (+48.6%) on the same period 2022. 

Electric Vehicle and Plug-in Hybrids and Hybrids continue to increase their market share, with a combined market share now of 42%. Petrol continues to remain dominant 32.85%, with Diesel accounting for 22.34%, Hybrid 17.44%, Electric 16.66% and Plug-in Electric Hybrid 7.90%. 

Brian Cooke, SIMI Director General said: “April’s new car registrations show a 14% increase on the same month last year, while year to date registrations are 16% ahead of 2022, but still remain 8% behind that of pre-COVID 2019. Commercial vehicle registrations both the heavy and light sectors, demonstrated strong growth for the month of April.

“Electric vehicle sales continue to power ahead with 1,870 new electric vehicles registered in April and 11,164 registered so far this year, a 49% increase on the same period 2022. The Electric Vehicle share of the new car market has increased each month this year, with sales for the month of now April representing over 20% of the market.

“The momentum behind new EV sales is clearly there, but we need to continue to incentivise EV purchases if we want to continue the growth in the new EV market share, but also to create an active used EV market.”