The number of new cars that are partly or fully run by electricity made up the majority of sales in Galway during 2025 — for the first time ever.

Electric and hybrid electric vehicles accounted for 2,879 of the total new car sales of 5,152 here last year.

That represents almost 56% of the total, compared with 45% in 2024 — that proportion has soared since the start of this decade, when they made up less than 22% of cars sold.

It’s a trend that is likely to continue throughout 2026, with this month, January, being traditionally by far the busiest for forecourt sales

Overall, car sales in Galway increased by more than one-tenth last year, with additional sales of 439 over the previous year amounting to a 9.3% rise, according to official figures published by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI).

That is substantially ahead of the national increase of just 3% — only in Carlow and Laois did dealers enjoy a great increase in business. In terms of sales totals, Galway came after Dublin, Cork and Kildare.

Meanwhile, imports of used cars also saw a substantial rise of more than 11% over the year, to a total of 3,653.

Automatic cars continued to increase in sales in Galway — to more than three-quarters of the new sales total, a 24% rise on the previous year.

Petrol/electric cars represent one in four of all new vehicle sales here last year, an increase of 14% on 2024.

With sales of 1,336 throughout 2025, they continue to edge ahead of diesel (1,201) and petrol (1,072), both of which maintained a downward sales trend during the year.

Closing the gap behind them are electric cars, which now make up more than 15% of the Galway market with sales of 786 — a 55% increase year on year.

Even stronger gains were made by petrol/plug-in electric hybrids, whose numbers soared by 73% to a total of 675.

Toyota maintained its strong position as the favourite car maker, with almost 17% of all cars coming off the forecourts, followed by Volkswagen (11%), Hyundai and Skoda (both close to 10%).

Top-selling model was the Hyundai Tucson, with Toyota’s Yaris Cross and RAV4 taking second and third respectively.

In terms of colour preferences, it’s a question of fifty shades of grey being front and centre with 39%, followed by black and then blue.

Medium and small SUVs made up three out of five new cars sold in Galway last year.

Pictured: Car sales…on the rise again.