There was a 68.5% increase in the number of electric and hybrid cars licenced in the first half of the year, according to new figures.
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) data shows 9,150 new electric and hybrid private cars were registered between January and June.
That represents 11.8% of all new private cars licensed, compared to 6.5% during the same period last year.
Five car manufacturers - Hyundai, Nissan, Renault, Volkswagen and BMW - accounted for a vast majority (93.4%) of new electric private cars registered here.
82.8% of new hybrid cars, meanwhile, were Toyota models.
Electric vehicles were most popular in Wicklow, which had the largest proportion of new private cars licenced (4.7%).
However, Longford had the highest proportion of hybrid vehicles at 14.6%.
Image: CSOOverall, the figures released today show there was an overall decrease of 6.5% in the number of new cars licenced compared to the first half of 2018.
A total of 77,639 new private cars were licensed, with Volkswagen the most popular make followed by Toyota, Hyundai, Ford and Skoda.
