SIMI published its April 2026 figures on 1 May (SIMI, 1 May 2026): 10,184 new passenger-car registrations, up 17% year-on-year. Year-to-date now stands at 75,074 cars, 2.1% ahead of the same period of 2025. The growth is not evenly distributed across the engine table, and that is the more interesting story.
Battery-Electric Cars More Than Doubled
The single most striking number in the SIMI release is the EV count. 2,779 fully battery-electric cars were registered in April 2026, against 1,335 in April 2025. That is a +109.7% year-on-year jump in a single month, although April is a small month in the Irish calendar, so the percentage moves easily.
Year-to-date, Ireland has registered 16,779 new EVs across the first four months. That is up 48.5% on the same period in 2025, when the running total was 11,299. That is 22.35% of all new cars registered so far this year. If the first four months' pace holds, the full-year EV share finishes above 20%; that is AutoNergy's own projection, not a SIMI forecast.
Hybrid Re-Takes the Mix
For most of 2024 and 2025, the engine-type leaderboard in any given month flipped between hybrid and petrol depending on plate-change timing. In SIMI's April release, hybrid (petrol-electric) led the 2026 market at 26.67% share, followed by full electric at 22.35%, petrol at 21.25%, plug-in hybrid at 14.41%, and diesel at 12.96%. Those shares match the year-to-date counts (16,779 electric cars out of 75,074). Diesel's share is now down by more than 55 percentage points from the 70% it held in 2016.
Plug-in hybrids deserve special mention. The 14.41% share suggests Irish buyers continue to use PHEVs as a bridge for households that are not yet ready for a full BEV but want some electric range.
Brand Standings: Toyota, Volkswagen, Skoda
The top five brands for the year to date were Toyota, Volkswagen, Skoda, Hyundai, Kia, with Toyota's hybrid-heavy lineup continuing to carry it. The top five models for the year to date tell a similar story: Toyota Yaris Cross, Hyundai Tucson, Kia Sportage, Skoda Kodiaq, Toyota Corolla. Every one of those is either a hybrid or available with hybrid powertrains, and every one is a crossover or compact SUV.
The single best-selling car in April was the Toyota RAV4. Among electric cars, SIMI's release names the Volkswagen ID.4 as the best-selling electric model of the year to date and Hyundai as the best-selling electric brand.
What April Signals for the Rest of 2026
April accounts for roughly 7 to 8% of full-year volume, so one strong month does not settle the year, but with the year to date 2.1% up, the market finishes ahead of 2025's 124,954 if the trend holds. The bigger question is the EV ratio. With BEV share at 22.35% for the year to date and EV registrations up 48.5%, AutoNergy's own reading is that 2026 is heading for Ireland's highest full-year EV share so far. Whether that share crosses 25% depends on Q4 supply for the high-volume models (Tesla Model Y, Skoda Enyaq, Volkswagen ID.4), and on whether the SEAI grant structure stays unchanged through the autumn budget.
Open the live Ireland dashboard on AutoNergy to drill into the monthly bars, fuel-mix streamgraph, and county registration map.