2024 was a challenging year for electric cars sales in Ireland, with the annual figures for new EV registrations down by nearly a quarter compared with the previous year.

There a multitude of factors to consider when looking at this slump, but there is also good reason to hope that the move towards electric cars will pick up steam again this year.

There were a total of 17,459 new electric vehicles registered in the state in 2024 according to figures from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI), a reduction of just under 24% compared with the 22,852 EVs sold the year prior.

This number is still higher than the 15,678 new electric cars sold in Ireland in 2022, with the sector seeing a huge 45% spike in 2023.

The question is whether the decrease seen this year is a blip or indicative of a more serious lack of confidence in the market.

One factor which could be significantly affecting consumer confidence in electric cars after a glut of first time buyers in 2023 is the lack of charging infrastructure.

Ireland has a serious deficit in the availability of public EV charging stations which only really started to be addressed last year, though there is still much progress to be made.

There are over 2,500 publicly available charging stations for electric vehicles in Ireland according to the SEAI. That number is small compared with countries which have a similar population to Ireland.

Even when there are chargers present along routes of travel, the small numbers can leave motorists waiting long periods of time for one to become available.

Norway boasted more than 27,500 public EV charging stations as of Q2 2024, Denmark had close to 18,000 at the start of last year, and Finland had a far smaller but still impressive 3,600 charging station by late 2023.

Even Lithuania, with a population nearly half the size of Ireland, had over 2,200 public charge points operational by Q3 2024.

It is noteworthy that the slump in sales compared with 2023 figures are clustered around counties in the west and northwest region, where there is less investment in infrastructure than in the Greater Dublin area.

In Cavan 83 new electric vehicles were registered between January and December last year, a 48.77% drop compared with the previous year. Sligo saw a 45.9% decrease with 99 new EVs, Leitrim was down 44.83%, Clare 43.36%, and Mayo 42.91%. 

The region, which is more rural than much of the east, saw a decline in electric car sales far above the national average.

Dublin in contrast saw EV sales drop by 17.83% last year, and other areas in the east and south east saw similar smaller declines; Waterford (-10.07%), Wexford (-15.59%), Kilkenny (-15.94%), and Kildare (-18.72%).

There is reason to be optimistic about the future of EVs in 2025, with sales towards the end of the year already bucking the negative trend which dominated 2024.

Last December 296 new electric vehicles were registered in the state, up 48.7% compared with the same month the previous year. This is a level of growth far greater than the overall decline seen in the course of 2024.

While the slow rollout of EV charging infrastructure has been paradoxical considering lofty government targets, late is still better than never.  

Last year saw a significant push for the construction of large numbers of new public charging stations along motorways and national road networks, as well as in towns and villages.

Last summer saw grant funding awarded though ZEVI for 131 high powered charging stations at locations close to motorways across the country.

Further grant funding to improve the access to EV charging along Ireland’s national roads have also been announced since then.

2025 should also see the implementation of the first stages of the Regional and Local EV Charging Network Plan which aims to increase the number of EV charging stations available in cities, towns, and villages. 

Under the auspices of local authorities this will provide more charging options for people in urban areas without off street parking for home EV chargers.

Rapid improvements in the technology of electric vehicles themselves should also help to improve people’s views of electric vehicles. A survey by Allianz conducted in DEcember 2022 found that 34% of people gave range anxiety as a major concern about switching to an EV.

People were and remain worried about how long the battery of an electric car will last, and their options for charging it when it runs down.

The range of options for electric cars have expanded massively in just a few years, with more than 100 different models now available on the Irish market. Within that range there has been a growing number of long range models with battery sizes of 55kWh to 77kWhm and with real ranges of up to 500km without needing to charge.

This is a far cry from just five years ago when many electric cars would have a maximum battery size of 40kWh, and with half of that range on a good day.

The massive worldwide investment in electric vehicles by manufacturers should also help to see the price of new electric cars continue to fall, putting them within reach of younger purchasers who are among the most likely to be considering switching to an electric car.

Greater numbers of new vehicles being sold will also help to jumpstart the second hand market for electric cars, which should also improve accessibility for all.

1. SIMI, ‘121,195 New Car Registrations in 2024; Electric Cars Reach 17,459’, https://www.simi.ie/en/news/121-195-new-car-registrations-in-2024-electric-cars-reach-17-459.
2. SEAI, ‘Charging an electric vehicle’, https://www.seai.ie/plan-your-energy-journey/for-your-home/electric-vehicles/about-evs/ev-charging.
3. Statista, ‘Number of publicly accessible alternating current and direct current electric vehicle charging points in Norway from Q1 2020 to Q2 2024’, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1030006/publicly-accessible-electric-vehicle-chargers-in-norway .
4. TheLocal.dk, ‘Denmark announces huge number of new EV charging stations’, https://www.thelocal.dk/20240129/denmark-announces-huge-number-of-new-ev-charging-stations .
5. Statista, ‘Total number of electric vehicle charging points in Lithuania between the first quarter of 2020 and the third quarter of 2024, by current type’, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1499675/lithuania-ev-charging-points-by-current-type/ .