Car10

VW's ID.4 top of the league ... just. With 8,261 electric cars sold year to date in Ireland at the end of May, EV sales are almost equal their full year sales for 2021, writes Brian Byrne . The biggest selling model was Volkswagen's ID.4 with 1,132 units, with Hyundai's Ioniq 5 snapping at its heels literally on 1,127 units. Kia's EV6 is next with 740 cars delivered. Nissan's Leaf with 660 cars and Tesla's Model 3, with 500 units rolled out, fill out the top five places in total representing a tad over half of all EVs sold in this country this year. Kia's Niro, Hyundai's Kona, VW's ID.3, Peugeot's 2008 and Renault's Zoe make up the rest of the top ten models, between them with a combined market share of 18.5pc. In all, there are 59 models competing in Ireland in the battery electric space.

A Kerry Volkswagen dealership is doing its bit for a greener operation, by going 100pc for getting its own electricity from solar, writes Brian Byrne . Divane's of Castleisland have had solar panels installed which can provide up to 73,000kWh of electricity every year. The work was carried out by Energywise Ireland, and the installation will power all the energy requirements of the showrooms, the workshop, and the business's own fleet of electric and PHEV vehicles. John Vahey, Brand Manager at Divane’s Volkswagen, noted that they are the first Volkswagen retailer to complete a project of this scope. "We are a large business and have heavy electricity requirements," he said. "We decided we needed to look towards the future and stop our reliance on fossil fuel energy by replacing it with renewable solar energy. This system is equivalent to planting 1,600 trees, saving over 35 tonnes of CO2 emissions."

Hybrid cars outsold diesels in Ireland in January, marking the continuation of a major shift in customer powertrain preference, writes Brian Byrne . Of the 25,093 cars registered in the month, 27pc were hybrid vehicles, against 22pc for diesel. Petrol-only cars accounted for 29pc of registrations. The hybrids were predominately Toyota models — almost three in four — followed by Ford, Hyundai, Lexus and Honda. Toyota filled the top five hybrid model registrations, led by the Corolla.  

Volkswagen's ID.3 and ID.4 electric cars were the best selling all-electric cars in 2021, garnering a combined 31ps of the battery electric vehicle market, writes Brian Byrne . There will be further additions to the ID range in 2022 with the ID.5 and ID.5 GTX. With 1,432 registrations, the ID.4 became the most popular BEV vehicle in Ireland, while the ID.3 was the second best-selling BEV model in the country with 1,271 registrations.  

Toyota Ireland closed out 2021 with a 12.44pc share of the new car market, reflected by having four of its models in the Irish top ten sellers, writes Brian Byrne . More than nine in ten of the brand's sales were for its low emission self-charging hybrid electric vehicles. Toyota sold 13,053 passenger cars in 2021, which represents more than a 30pc year-on-year increase. The second biggest selling brand was Volkswagen with 12.02pc market share, followed by Hyundai (10.24pc, Skoda (8.6pc) and Ford (7.10pc). The top selling models were Hyundai Tucson, Toyota Corolla, Toyota Yaris, Volkswagen Tiguan, and Toyota C-HR.  

90pc of current EV owners plan to buy another. Two thirds of drivers in an AA Ireland survey said they wouldn't buy a standard petrol or diesel car again, writes Brian Byrne . Two in five of current petrol-diesel car owners plan to buy a hybrid next, according to the survey results. A full EV will be the choice of 12.5pc of respondents. The study or more than 8,000 drivers polled showed that 90pc of current EV owners plan to buy another, while just 1pc would go back to internal combustion engines. The biggest barriers to buying full EVs as expressed by the results were the high purchase price of these vehicles (67pc), worries about the range (46pc), fear that charging takes too long (31pc) and the lack of regular access to a charger (30pc).