By David Seagrave

The number of vehicles registered in Ireland for the first time has decreased from the same period last year, new figures from the Central Statistics Office show.

Conversely, the number of cars using electric-based engines has gone up, with Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) the only type of electric-based vehicle to be registered less than last year. 

Electric vehicles and hybrids both saw an increase in the number of registrations, with petrol and diesel both showing a decrease in new registrations. 

The number of used petrol vehicles has reduced by less than 2%, while new diesel vehicles have reduced by 59%. The drop in diesel vehicles could also be attributed to the NOx levy and the introduction of VAT from cars imported from the UK, excluding Northern Ireland.

Diesel vehicles have also reduced due to the impact of the cost of living crisis, as diesel prices have soared to more than €2 per litre. 

Electric vehicles and PHEVs showed a drop in used registrations, while hybrid vehicles showed an increase of 17.5%.  

The number of new cars registered in Ireland from January – September has dropped by just 1%, while the number of second-hand cars imported has dropped by a significant 35%. 

The most popular brand of new private cars registered was Volkswagen, accounting for 17% of all new cars on the road. Kia, Hyundai, Skoda and Tesla also make up the top five respectively, accounting for just under half of all new car sales in Ireland. 

Lower emissions vehicles make up the bulk of new cars registered in Ireland, with 82,929 of all cars falling into emission bands A1 – B2, meaning they have less than 140 grams of carbon per kilometre (g/km).

Goods vehicles have also seen a decrease of 20% in new registrations, and another 29% in used registrations, following protests last December, and a second round of protests in April over spiralling fuel prices.

Band G, which is anything above 226g/km, only registered 108 new cars, with 105 of those coming from petrol and diesel engines.