Ireland is experiencing a “huge switch” towards electric and hybrid cars, according to DoneDeal.
The car sales website has released its latest ad-view figures with an electric model coming out as the most in demand for the first time ever.
According to the figures, the Volkswagen ID.4 is now the most sought-after model on the new car market – with more ad views than any other car.
On The Pat Kenny Show this morning, report author Dr Tom Gillespie said it marks the first time an electric car has been the most popular on the site.
He said the increasing popularity of electric vehicles can also be seen in Ireland’s new car sales figures – with over 12,500 new electric cars taking to the road so far this year.
“In terms of new car registrations, EVs in 2019 were around 2% of new car registrations and now they are up to 13%,” he said.
“Same with hybrids. They were around 8% in 2019 and now they are up to 30% in the first half of this year.
“So, there is definitely a huge switch to EVs and Hybrids. Whether or not we’ll reach our target of one million by 2030, a lot of people say that is not feasible at the moment.
“We would almost need to have in the next six years, every new car would have to be an EV if we were to hit that target, so it’s important that the incentives to buying an EV remain in place so we can try and get to that target.”
Inflation
He said inflation in the used car market is “really problematic” for electric vehicle uptake – with inflation running far higher at the lower end of the market than the upper.
“In the upper end of the market, we are seeing a lot of people switching to EVs,” he said. “There is a big increase in demand for used EVs and a lot of people are switching.
“But in the lower end of the market, the inflation rate has almost doubled since the start of the pandemic. So, the inflation rate in the lower end of the market - i.e. cars below say €5,000 - is up to 97%, which is hugely significant and from an emissions perspective, this is really problematic.
“Switching to electric is not really an option for people on the lower end of the income distribution living in rural Ireland.”
Electric
DoneDeal examined all new ad view data on the site between January and August of this year to crown the Volkswagen ID.4 as the country’s most in-demand model.
The Hyundai IONIQ 5 and Kia EV6 were also represented in the top 10 most popular new cars.
August 2022 saw a 30% year on year growth in the demand for new EVs on DoneDeal, while demand for new diesel cars fell by 26% in the same period.
You can listen back to Dr Gillespie here:
