According to stats released by SIMI, 8.24% of all cars sold in 2021 were fully electric. That represents a 115% shift towards electric over the previous year. This accounts for a drop of just over 8% in diesel sales, which accounted for 33.44% of all sales in 2021; the largest cohort in the country, beating petrol by almost 1.5% market share.

Hybrid cars represented 16.22% when looking at petrol or 2.12% with diesel. However, plug-in hybrid cars with petrol engines represented 7.26%, which saw an increase of 210% in sales over the prior year. Plug-in hybrid diesels represented the smallest portion of sales, at just 0.26% of all car sales in the country. But that represented over 700% growth of 2020.

The year-over-year trend is encouraging:

• 2016 – 0.2%

• 2017 – 0.4%

• 2018 – 1%

• 2019 – 2.9%

• 2020 – 4.5%

• 2021 – 8.3%

This is down to more choice, prices normalising and cheaper options overall. IEVOA is encouraged by these numbers. And even more, encouraged by the growth in the market such that a second-hand market is emerging as owners of older EVs begin to sell, or “trade-up” on their older vehicles.

So, to the 8,646 new electric car owners in 2021, welcome to the club!