Best-Selling Electric Cars in Ireland
Quick answer
The Volkswagen ID.4 has been Ireland's best-selling electric car every year since CSO started publishing model-level EV data in 2024, ahead of the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y in every year. Electric car sales nearly doubled from 15,525 in 2024 to 31,985 in the first nine months of 2026 alone.
Top 5 electric cars, by year
2026 figures are year to date (January-September).
| Rank | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (YTD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tesla Model 3 (1,567) | Volkswagen ID.4 (2,010) | Volkswagen ID.4 (2,475) |
| 2 | Volkswagen ID.4 (1,504) | Tesla Model 3 (1,602) | Tesla Model 3 (1,457) |
| 3 | Tesla Model Y (1,260) | Kia EV 3 (1,259) | Tesla Model Y (1,420) |
| 4 | Hyundai Kona (732) | Tesla Model Y (1,189) | Skoda Enyaq (1,171) |
| 5 | BYD Seal (692) | Hyundai Inster (1,001) | Hyundai Inster (1,146) |
See how we calculate these figures for the source data.
The Volkswagen ID.4 took the lead and hasn’t given it back
Tesla’s Model 3 was Ireland’s best-selling EV in 2024. The Volkswagen ID.4 overtook it in 2025 and has extended that lead through 2026 so far. The Tesla Model Y has held a steady 3rd-4th place across all three years, making Tesla and Volkswagen the only two brands to place a model in the top 3 every year.
Below the top 3, the list turns over every year: the BYD Seal (2024) and Kia EV 3 (2025) each had one year in the top 5 and dropped out, while the Hyundai Inster and Skoda Enyaq are both new entries in 2025-2026 — a sign of how fast the model lineup in this segment is still changing.
EV sales are growing fast, not just shifting between models
Total electric car registrations in this data went from 15,525 in 2024 to 22,369 in 2025 to 31,985 in the first nine months of 2026 alone — already well ahead of all of 2025 with a quarter of the year still to come. See EV adoption by county for how that growth is landing unevenly across Ireland, and new car sales since 1996 for how electric vehicles compare to petrol and diesel in the overall new-car market.
What this doesn’t tell you
This counts new private cars licensed for the first time as electric — it does not include used EV imports, and CSO has only published this specific make/model-by-fuel breakdown since January 2024, so there’s no earlier model-level comparison available.