Ireland new car registrations rose 17% in April 2026, EVs up 110%

SIMI reported 10,184 new passenger-car registrations in Ireland in April 2026, a 17% jump on April 2025's 8,707 units (SIMI, 1 May 2026). The standout figure: battery-electric registrations more than doubled to 2,799 units (+109.7% YoY), pushing year-to-date EV sales to 16,779 units, up 48.5% on YTD 2025. EV share of the YTD market now sits at 22.35%, second only to hybrid (26.67%).

April 2026, Ireland headline numbers

Metric	April 2026	vs April 2025
New car registrations	10,184	+17.0%
BEV registrations	2,799	+109.7%
YTD total	75,074	+2.1% (vs 73,491)
YTD BEV	16,779	+48.5% (vs 11,299)

YTD 2026 powertrain mix (SIMI)

Powertrain	YTD share
Hybrid (petrol electric)	26.67%
Battery electric	22.35%
Petrol	21.25%
Plug-in hybrid	14.41%
Diesel	12.96%

Top sellers, April 2026

• Top new car (April): Toyota RAV4
• Top new electric car (April): Skoda Enyaq

Why the EV doubling matters

SIMI says private buyers accounted for 77% of BEV sales and credits Government incentives for the momentum, while warning that a 22% BEV share is still below the level needed for national climate targets. We covered the earlier trend in our Ireland EV-share deep-dive.

Ireland's January plate rush put about 27% of 2025's registrations into a single month (see our January plate-rush explainer), so a strong April after the January peak points to demand beyond the calendar effect. SIMI's release prints the April BEV figure as both 2,779 and 2,799; the 109.7% growth rate matches 2,799.

Source & methodology

All figures from the SIMI (Society of the Irish Motor Industry) press release of 1 May 2026, cross-checked against RTÉ and CompleteCar.ie reporting. Live YTD trend, county-level breakdown and brand share on the Ireland dashboard.