SIMI uses its own and third parties’ cookies in order to improve your experience and our services. These cookies provide a better performance, enhanced features and enable certain functionalities. You can obtain more information and learn how to change the configuration of your browser, including how to block some cookies, in our Cookies Policy. However, you should know that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on the site and limit the services we are able to offer. You can also review our Privacy Policy here

    Ireland's National Fleet

    The key to reducing transport emissions will be renewal of the Irish car fleet. Currently the average age of cars on Irish road is 9.9 years, we simply have not been selling enough new cars over the last decade to materially reduce the average age.

    Car Fleet 

    Our current national car fleet has 2.47 million cars on the road.

    • Petrol and Diesel cars account for 84% (2.14 Million) of the National Fleet.
    • Electric Vehicles (BEV & PHEV) now representing 7%.
    • Average age of Petrol cars on the road is 11.3 years old and 10.3 years old for Diesel.
    • 48% of the Fleet is now 10 years or older

    The most effective way to address this issue is to reduce the number of older cars in the national fleet, which means we need to replace these cars with new cars. A minimum of 140,000 new registrations is needed each year to adequately renew the national fleet and maintain a healthy supply of used vehicles.

    New Car Market

    The composition of the new car market is changing. 

    • Electric, Hybrid and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles are gaining more market share, while Diesel and Petrol share have moved closer together, both still have an important role to play with diesel in particular being the fuel of choice for rural Ireland.
    • With 2.47 million vehicles currently in the national fleet, there will continue to be a large number of Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles in the Irish Fleet, even beyond the next 10 years, all of which will require servicing for many years to come. 
    • For many motorists it will take time to transition from internal combustion engines as the cost to change even with incentives is not a viable proposition.
    • The most effective way to address this issue is to reduce the number of older cars in the national fleet, which means we need to replace these cars with new cars.

    Average Age of Cars on Irish Roads

    Overall, the average age of the national car fleet is now 9.9 years old

    This compares to 5.8 years at the start of 2008.