Ireland registered 2,501 new cars in October 2026, up 14.7% on October 2025's 2,180, according to the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI, 2 November 2026). The year to date is 130,754, up 5.6% on 123,855 for January to October 2025. RTE and The Irish Times report the same figures.
Electric took 44% of a quiet month
October is a small month in Ireland because most buyers register in January and July, when the plate changes. Within it, 1,092 battery-electric cars were registered, up 54.7% on 706 a year earlier, which is 44% of all cars registered in the month. For the year, 36,270 electric cars have been registered, up 57% on 23,082. SIMI says 61% of new electric cars this year were registered outside Dublin.
| Ireland new cars | 2026 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| October, all new cars | 2,501 | 2,180 | +14.7% |
| October, battery electric | 1,092 | 706 | +54.7% |
| January to October, all new cars | 130,754 | 123,855 | +5.6% |
| January to October, battery electric | 36,270 | 23,082 | +57.1% |
Share of the year by powertrain
On SIMI's engine-type shares for January to October, battery-electric leads on 27.74%, followed by petrol hybrid on 23.54%, petrol on 19.43%, plug-in hybrid on 14.99% and diesel on 12.31%. A month earlier, to September, electric was 27.43% and diesel 12.36%, so electric kept gaining and diesel kept slipping.
Brands and models
The top five brands of the year are unchanged: Toyota, Volkswagen, Skoda, Hyundai and Kia. The Irish Times puts Toyota on 17,865 registrations, Volkswagen on 15,110, Skoda on 12,736 and Hyundai on 10,830, with the Toyota Yaris Cross the best-selling model on 3,886. The top five models are the Yaris Cross, Hyundai Tucson, Skoda Octavia, Kia Sportage and Skoda Kodiaq. The Volkswagen ID.4 was October's best seller and the year's top electric car, ahead of the Tesla Model Y.
What is not updated yet
SIMI's Motorstats database, which holds the full brand, model, county and fuel tables, was offline for its monthly update when we checked on 2 and 3 November 2026. The breakdowns on the Ireland dashboard are therefore still January to September and are labelled so; they will move to October when Motorstats returns. One caution: SIMI revises its database after each release, so monthly figures can shift by a car or two (September was first reported as 6,342 and sits at 6,319 on Motorstats).
Next: SIMI's November release is due on Tuesday 1 December 2026. The live Ireland dashboard has the month-by-month bars, and our 262 reg report tracks the second-half plate, now at 45,594 cars.