Electric & Hybrid Car Sales surge to 1,600 a month

Just under 10,000 new Electric & Hybrid cars have been sold in the state during the first six months of 2019. This represents an increase of 3,911 units when compared to the same time period in 2018.

9,582 new Electric & Hybrid cars rolled off the nation’s forecourts over the last six months. A 69% year-on-year increase. Electric and Hybrid car sales are now the exclusive growth area in new car sales nationwide.

The data was released as part of DoneDeal’s H1 2019 Motor Industry Review, sponsored by Bluestone Motor Finance that was published today.

A total of 318,749 used cars traded hands during the opening six months of 2019, compared to 330,784 for the same period in 2018, a 3.6% year-on-year decrease.

Volkswagen was the most popular used car make of H1 2019, with a total of 42,952 Volkswagen’s changing hands in the used car market. Toyota (38,880) and Ford (35,243) were next best with Nissan (19,761) and Audi (18,006) rounding out the top five.

DoneDeal has also revealed the top used makes and models that have retained their value the best from when they were new in 2016. The car that maintained its value the most since 2016 is the Skoda Octavia with an average value depreciation of 33% in that time frame. Next best, was the Volkswagen Golf (35%), followed by the Ford Focus (48%).

Meanwhile, the best selling new Electric car of 2019 is the Hyundai Kona which sold 728 units between January and June and accounted for 37% of all new Electric car sales in Ireland. The Nissan Leaf was the second best seller with 651 unit sales while the E Golf came in, in third with 135 car sales.

During May and June DoneDeal surveyed over 1,000 people looking to purchase a car and found more than half (52%) of those surveyed were interested in purchasing a Diesel engine, however future buying preference for Electric and Hybrid vehicles is now at an all-time high of 26% amongst future car buyers. Elsewhere, 56% of people said they would trade-in their car when buying their next with 44% opting to sell privately.

Martin Clancy from DoneDeal said: “Every month – one thousand six hundred new Electric & Hybrid cars are now rolling off the nation’s forecourts. In Dublin alone, over 4,000 have been sold in the opening six months of 2019. It’s a similar pattern across the major cities. In Cork 1,200 new Electric & Hybrid units were sold. Galway witnessed a 62% year-on-year surge with sales of 435 EVs to date. Meanwhile, Limerick (301) and Waterford (172) all witnessed substantial year-on-year increases.”