Dede Sophie

Of 44 cars I have reviewed through 2022, 16 have been electric, writes Brian Byrne. That’s more than a third. And significantly more than the 15pc which electric cars represent in the 2022 national car sales figures. But the key figure there is that this year sales of EVs increased by some 83pc over 2021, so the trend is unmistakeable, and only going in one direction. For the record, the biggest seller by several of the proverbial country miles is Volkswagen’s ID.4, with almost 3,000 delivered, from Hyundai’s Ionioq 5 (1,164), Tesla’s Model 3 (1,042), Kia’s EV6 (955), and VW’s ID.3 (922) together making up the top five models among the more than 60 different electric passenger vehicles available here. My review car this week, the BMW i4, is down in 15th place, which is still a respectable position for a premium D-segment saloon in liftback format. The really interesting part here is that what is BMW’s first dedicated electric non-SUV model outsold its related 4 Series internal combusti

Nissan’s Qashqai is the brand’s biggest seller in Ireland, writes Brian Byrne. By a long shot — last year the C segment SUV sold more than twice the number of the company’s second best performing model here, the iconic Leaf EV. This is the third generation of a nameplate first rolled off the assembly line in 2007. At that time, anticipating the trend of crossover-SUVs for the family car market, it was designed to replace both the Almera compact and the Primera large family saloon models, both aged and tired. The strategy worked, and Qashqai boosted both the carmaker’s reputation and its bank balance. The strange-sounding name was used in Europe — variants were sold in other markets under more normal monikers, such as Rogue in the US.  The original quite soft style has sharpened up through the last two iterations, with the current car having a very strong presence indeed. The stylists have provided edgy shapes, managing to meld curves and angles into unexpectedly attractive elements. It