Searches for electric cars almost doubled during the spring fuel crisis and remain well ahead of last year, while Dublin’s share of national electric registrations falls more than eight points and Roscommon, Cavan and Clare more than double
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Electric car searches on DoneDeal Cars rose 40% in the first eight months of 2026, while diesel searches fell 22%.
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Searches almost doubled during the spring fuel crisis, up 99% in March and 88% in April against the same months in 2025.
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Every county in Ireland grew its new electric car registrations. Dublin’s share of the national total fell from 46.5% to 38.3%.
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Wicklow now has the highest electric uptake of any county, with 39.3% of its new cars battery electric. Dublin ranks 16th of 26.
Dublin, Wednesday 2 September 2026 — Searches for electric cars on DoneDeal Cars rose 40% in the first eight months of 2026 compared with the same period last year, as Ireland’s shift to electric moved decisively outside Dublin.
The increase came against a fall in searches for diesel cars, which dropped 22% over the same period. Searches for hybrids rose 4%. The figures are published alongside SIMI’s official August registration statistics, which show battery electric cars accounted for 26.3% of all new cars registered in Ireland this year, making electric the largest single engine type in the new car market for the first time.
“The spring fuel crisis was the moment a lot of Irish drivers did the maths for the first time. Searches for electric cars on DoneDeal Cars nearly doubled in March and April, and while the panic has passed, they are still running well ahead of last year. Diesel searches, meanwhile, are down more than a fifth and have not come back.”
“The other thing our DoneDeal Cars data and the official registration figures agree on is that this is no longer a Dublin story. Wicklow, Kildare and Meath have the highest electric uptake in the country now, and counties like Roscommon and Cavan have more than doubled. The commuter belt has the driveways, the home chargers and the predictable commutes that make an electric car obviously cheaper to run, and the rest of the country is following.”
“With VRT relief for electric cars due to expire on 31 December, the risk is that a market which has just found its footing outside the capital loses momentum right when it was starting to work.”
Paddy Comyn, Head of Automotive Content and Communications, DoneDeal Cars
On DoneDeal Cars
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Electric car searches rose 40% year on year in January to August 2026.
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Searches almost doubled during the fuel crisis, up 99% in March and 88% in April against the same months in 2025.
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Diesel searches fell 22% over the same eight months.
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August electric searches rose 7.6%, closely tracking the 7% rise in new electric car registrations recorded for the same month.
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Galway saw the largest increase in searches for electric cars located in the county, up 67%, followed by Cork (+56%), Clare (+39%), Limerick (+35%), Kerry (+27%) and Dublin (+25%).
In the new car registration data
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Every county in Ireland grew its electric car registrations. Roscommon led at +158.7%, followed by Cavan (+105.0%), Clare (+103.2%) and Carlow (+100.6%). Four counties more than doubled.
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Cork is the standout, with 92.2% growth combined with the second-largest volume increase in the country at +1,856 cars.
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Dublin was the slowest-growing county at +27.8%, and the only one below the national growth rate of 55%.
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Dublin’s share of national electric registrations fell from 46.5% to 38.3%. Outside Dublin, electric registrations grew 79% year on year, against 28% inside the capital.
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Wicklow now has the highest electric uptake of any county, with 39.3% of its new cars battery electric, ahead of Kildare (35.1%) and Meath (34.9%). Dublin ranks 16th of 26.
The fuel crisis moved the market
DoneDeal Cars search data captures the effect of the spring fuel emergency with unusual clarity.
Searches for electric cars were running roughly 26% and 31% ahead of last year in January and February. As pump prices climbed past €2.05 a litre for petrol and €2.35 for diesel in early March, that increase jumped to 99%. It stayed near 88% in April, the month fuel protests and terminal blockades left around 40% of Irish forecourts without fuel.
Searches for hybrids and plug-in hybrids also rose over the same period while diesel searches fell sharply, a pattern consistent with buyers reassessing running costs across the board rather than a narrow shift to electric alone.
Budget 2027
Three supports for electric car buyers are due to be decided in Budget 2027. VRT relief of up to €5,000 on battery electric cars is legislated to end on 31 December 2026, meaning new electric cars registered from 1 January 2027 would pay full VRT for the first time since 2008. The SEAI purchase grant of up to €3,500 requires renewal, having already seen its price cap cut from €60,000 to €50,000 on 31 July 2026. The 0% Benefit-in-Kind threshold falls from €20,000 to €10,000 for cars made available in 2027.
The ICE2EV scrappage pilot, which offered €5,000 towards an electric car for buyers scrapping an older petrol or diesel, opened on 1 July 2026 with a €10 million fund and was fully subscribed within roughly 75 minutes, at 2,000 applications.