Ireland has become an ‘EV-first’ market for the first time, with new analysis by DoneDeal Cars, Ireland’s largest car marketplace, of the latest new car registration figures from SIMI (Society of the Irish Motor Industry) showing electric cars have overtaken every other engine type to become the single most popular choice for Irish new car buyers.
Year-to-date to the end of July, battery electric vehicles (BEVs) account for 26.12% of all new car registrations, edging out hybrid (24.59%) for the first time this year, with petrol (20.39%), plug-in hybrid (14.45%) and diesel (12.45%) trailing further behind. July was a record month in its own right: 9,682 new electric cars were registered, a 98% jump on July 2025 and the highest monthly BEV total the Irish market has ever recorded.
Ireland’s shift to an EV-first market puts it in reasonable company. DoneDeal Cars compared Ireland’s year-to-date figure against the International Council on Clean Transportation’s (ICCT) European Car Market Monitor, which tracks BEV market share across Europe’s largest car markets for the first half of 2026.
The comparison showed Ireland had already pulled clear of some of the continent’s biggest markets. Italy (8%), Spain (10%) and Poland (5%) – three of Europe’s five largest car markets – were all well behind Ireland’s electric adoption rate, as was the UK (25%). Ireland now sits almost exactly level with Germany (26%) and just behind France (28%).
But there is real distance to make up. Norway (98%) and Denmark (80%), Finland (49%), Iceland (43%) and Sweden (42%) sit well clear of Ireland.
Paddy Comyn, head of automotive content and communications, DoneDeal Cars, said: “Becoming an EV-first market is a genuine milestone for Ireland, and it’s tempting to get carried away with it. But put it next to the rest of Europe and you get a more honest picture: we’ve caught up with Germany and moved clear of bigger markets like Italy, Spain and the UK, which is real progress. Set against Norway and Denmark, though, we’re still only getting started – electric buyers there aren’t leading the market, they basically are the market. Ireland’s momentum is real, but so is the gap still left to close.”
New car sales are one thing; the cars already on Irish roads are another. According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), there were 134,475 electric vehicles registered in Ireland at the end of June 2026 – just 4% of the State’s 3.34 million-strong vehicle fleet. Petrol and diesel cars account for 85.3% of vehicles on the road. It has taken 16 years since Ireland’s first EV registration in 2010 to reach that 4% mark.
EV ownership was also found to be concentrated, with Dublin and Cork alone account for almost half of all private electric vehicles on Irish roads, according to the CSO. Dublin, Cork, Kildare, Meath, Wicklow and Galway combined make up 70% of the national EV stock.
Buyer interest is following the sales data. DoneDeal Cars’ own platform data showed EV-specific searches rose 68.5% year-on-year in July, as more Irish car buyers actively research an electric car before they buy.
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