Electric vehicles (EVs) also known as Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs), as of June 2026, represented 4.0%, or 134,475 vehicles of the total vehicle fleet (3,340,922) in Ireland, with diesel and petrol vehicles accounting for 85.3%.
With the first EV registered in Ireland in 2010, it has taken sixteen years for EVs to now represent 4% of all licensed vehicles. Furthermore, for January to June 2026, EVs represented almost a quarter (24.1%) of new private vehicles licensed in Ireland.
Most EVs (81.0%) are less than five years old, however 82.0% of the non-EVs in the private licensed fleet are more than five years old.
While Cork and Dublin together represent around 40.0% of Ireland’s population, they account for almost half (49.0%) of private licensed EVs.
Based on 2024 data, at EU level (EU-27), EVs represented 2.2% of the passenger fleet, with Denmark reporting the highest percentage of EVs at 12%, and Poland and Greece the lowest at 0.3%.
Ten countries (Denmark, Malta, Sweden, Netherland, Finland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal, Austria, and France) reported a new EV registration rate higher than Ireland’s EVs registration rate of 14.2% for passenger vehicles in 2024.
This release uses data from Eurostat, CSO, and the Department of Transport to give insights into various aspects of the Road Transport Structure Fleet and the current EV Private fleet structure.
This release provides some insight into an important climate change mitigator – the electrification of the vehicle fleet. Ireland's Climate Action Plan 2024 outlines a target for 945,000 EVs on the road by 2030, with 845,000 of them being private vehicles.
In 2024, there were 77,336 passenger EVs in Ireland, making up 3.1% of the total passenger fleet.
For the period 2013-2024, EV passenger registration increased to 77,336 vehicles from a starting position of 49 vehicles in 2013. When we look at comparable EU data, we see a large increase over this period also, with the EU registration of passenger EVs standing at almost 1.5million (1,455,122) vehicles in 2024, up from 22,066 EVs in 2013. The term passenger vehicles cover vehicles which can carry up to 9 passengers.
Eleven countries had a share of passenger EVs in the total passenger fleet above the EU-27 average of 2.2%, with Denmark in the top position at 12% and Greece and Poland the lowest with 0.3%. Ireland is ranked 9th in the EU (at 3.1%), with Finland in 8th place at 3.2% and France in 10th place at 2.8%.
Additionally, 12 EU-27 countries (Estonia, Lithuania, Spain, Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Czechia, Croatia, Cyprus, Slovakia, Poland and Greece) have an EV percentage of the passenger fleet below 1%. (See Table 1).
In 2024, Ireland's electric vehicle for new passenger registrations were 0.7 percentage points higher than the EU-27 average of 13.5%. This ranked Ireland 11th in the EU, with France in 10th at 16.6% and Cyprus in 12th at 7.9%. Denmark had the highest rate at 51.3% (89,058 vehicles), and Croatia the lowest at 1.8% (882 vehicles).
EVs accounted for 4% of the licensed fleet as of June 2026.
As of June 2026, diesel and petrol vehicles accounted for 85.3% (2,849,983 vehicles) of Ireland’s total licensed fleet. The number of EVs, at 134,475 vehicles, represented 4.0% of the fleet. Hybrid vehicles (Hybrid Electric – HEV and Plug-in Hybrid Electric - PHEV) mainly made up the remainder, representing 10.5% of the total fleet (See Table 2).
In terms of taxation categories, private vehicles made up 77.5% of the total fleet, with goods vehicles at 13.3%, agricultural tractors at 2.3% and other categories at 7% (See Table 3).
| Licensed fleet by type of vehicle, June 2026 | |
| Private Vehicles | 2589622 |
| Goods vehicles | 442809 |
| Agricultural tractor | 75978 |
| Other categories | 232513 |
Nearly all EVs (93.0%) are licensed as private vehicles in June 2026.
New private vehicles licensed for the first time decreased by 2.6% in the 12 months to June 2026, with an increase in new licensed EVs of 25.6% or 1,539 units. There were increases in hybrids such as HEV, PHEV (23.5%), but a decrease in petrol and diesel new registrations of 28.6% and 30% respectively for the same period (See Table 4).
| Month | Petrol | Diesel | Electric | Hybrid (HEV, PHEV) | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 January | 5929 | 3670 | 3386 | 9499 | 22484 |
| 2025 February | 3664 | 2409 | 2853 | 5468 | 14394 |
| 2025 March | 3905 | 2530 | 2473 | 5480 | 14388 |
| 2025 April | 3948 | 2308 | 1783 | 4994 | 13033 |
| 2025 May | 2271 | 1568 | 1382 | 3182 | 8403 |
| 2025 June | 1707 | 954 | 1225 | 1373 | 5259 |
| 2025 July | 5030 | 3242 | 3973 | 7678 | 19923 |
| 2025 August | 1977 | 1534 | 2394 | 3450 | 9355 |
| 2025 September | 1311 | 1150 | 2000 | 2262 | 6723 |
| 2025 October | 827 | 701 | 1144 | 1424 | 4096 |
| 2025 November | 462 | 336 | 521 | 582 | 1901 |
| 2025 December | 190 | 160 | 264 | 224 | 838 |
| 2026 January | 4639 | 2933 | 5439 | 11220 | 24231 |
| 2026 February | 2681 | 1731 | 3074 | 6174 | 13660 |
| 2026 March | 3500 | 2045 | 3429 | 6156 | 15130 |
| 2026 April | 2649 | 1586 | 3089 | 4606 | 11930 |
| 2026 May | 2483 | 1454 | 3010 | 4116 | 11063 |
| 2026 June | 1219 | 669 | 1539 | 1696 | 5123 |
Licensed electric vehicles (EVs) are primarily taxed as private vehicles (92.8% of the total). A smaller portion (4.3%) are taxed as commercial goods vehicles, with 1.4% of EVs licensed as taxis. Looking at other fuel types, we can see that petrol vehicles are mostly taxed as private vehicles also (89.9%), whereas 23% of diesel vehicles are classed as goods vehicles (See Table 5).
| Electric | Petrol | Diesel | Hybrid (HEV, PHEV) | |
| Private Vehicles | 124753 | 866106 | 1257849 | 334439 |
| Goods | 5799 | 0 | 433226 | 2188 |
| Other categories | 3923 | 9191 | 120052 | 12977 |
| Cycle | 0 | 52326 | 0 | 0 |
| Vintage/veteran | 0 | 35738 | 0 | 0 |
| Agricultural tractor | 0 | 0 | 75495 | 0 |
Based on the vehicle’s manufacture year, 81.1% of EV private vehicles were under five years old.
As of June 2026, based on the vehicles manufacture’s year, 81.1% of private EVs were less than five years old (100,177 vehicles), compared with 18.1% of private non-EVs (445,871 vehicles). The share of EVs in the 6-10-year old category was 16.7% (20,634 vehicles), with 2.2% (2,672 vehicles) being over 10 years old (See Table 6).
| Private EVs | Private Non-Evs | |
| 0 - 5 years | 100177 | 445871 |
| 6 - 10 years | 20634 | 712311 |
| 11+ years | 2672 | 1307957 |
Private EVs' ownership is clustered in a small number of counties.
Dublin (47,401), Cork (13,840), Kildare (8,789), Meath (6,647), Wicklow (5,884), and Galway (4,980 vehicles) are the six counties with the highest number of EVs, accounting for 70% (87,541 vehicles) of the private EV fleet, while representing 57.2% of Ireland’s population (Census 2022 population).
The six counties with the lowest number of EVs are Carlow (1,181), Cavan (1,039), Roscommon (959), Monaghan (704), Longford (550), and Leitrim (434), accounting for 4% of the private EVs fleet. These counties accounted for around 7% of the total population.
County Dublin and County Cork together represent 49% of the private licensed EVs fleet (61,241 vehicles) but 39.7% of the population (See Table 7).
Learn about our data and confidentiality safeguards, and the steps we take to produce statistics that can be trusted by all.
Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (28 July 2026) published the Composition of Ireland's Vehicle Fleet 2026.
Commenting on the data, Damien Lenihan, Statistician in the Transport Section of the CSO, said:
"The electrification of Ireland’s vehicle fleet is seen as an important response to Ireland’s climate change obligations, with targets to significantly increase the number of EVs in Ireland (See Editor’s note). Today's figures provide insight into the adoption of electric vehicles in Ireland.
Electric vehicles represented 4% (134,475) of the total vehicle fleet (3,340,922) in Ireland in June 2026, with diesel and petrol accounting for 85.3% of the fleet.
The first electric vehicles (EVs) in Ireland were registered in 2010 with 18 vehicles. Over the course of the next 16 years to 2026, EVs have grown to represent 4% of the entire fleet and the EV stock now stands at 134,475 units. In the period from January to June 2026, EVs represented 24.1% of new private vehicles licensed in Ireland (private vehicles refers to privately owned vehicles, including hire, fleet, and certain commercial vehicles).
In June 2026, based on the year of manufacture, 81.9% (2,020,268) of non-EVs of the privately licensed fleet were more than five years old, while 81.1% (100,177) of private EVs were less than five years old.
In 2026, County Cork and County Dublin together account for about 40% of Ireland’s population (2,031,932) but almost half (49%) of the privately licensed EVs (61,241).
Based on 2024 data, looking at where Ireland’s EV adoption stood in relation to our EU neighbours, electric vehicles accounted for 2.2% of the passenger fleet across the EU-27 (a passenger car is a vehicle sitting up to nine people, excluding mopeds and motorcycles). Denmark had the highest share of EVs at 12%, while Poland and Greece had the lowest at 0.3%. The share of EVs among passenger vehicles fleet in Ireland was 3.1% in 2024, which was 0.9 percentage points higher than the EU’s average of 2.2%.
Recent increases to EV stock levels in the EU, show that many countries are progressively adopting EVs into their fleets. Ireland's EV stock of passenger vehicles reached 77,336 vehicles in 2024, which was a 30.2% increase from 59,400 vehicles in 2023.
Between 2023 and 2024, Malta recorded the highest percentage increase in EV registrations at 90.8% (2,893 vehicles), while Romania had the lowest with a decrease of 36.3% (9,795 vehicles).
Additionally, in 2024, Denmark recorded the highest EV registration rate for new vehicles of 51.3%, with Croatia recording the lowest at 1.8%.”