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Vehicles licensed for the first time March 2024

New petrol & electric cars up by 59% in first three months of 2024 compared with the same period in 2023

Online ISSN: 2009-5678

CSO statistical publication, 10 April 2024, 11am

Key Findings

The number of new cars licensed in March 2024 decreased by 866 vehicles (-5%) compared with March 2023.
In the first three months of 2024, 14% of all new cars licensed for the first time were electric compared with 16% in the same period in 2023.
Over one-fifth (23%) of new private cars licensed in the first three months of 2024 were diesel compared with over a quarter (22%) in the same period in 2023.
The number of used cars licensed in the first three months of 2024 increased by 25% compared with the same period in 2023 (14,874 versus 11,877).
There were 4,026 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in the first three months of 2024, compared with 4,395 in first three months of 2023, a fall of 8%.
Skoda (1,959) was the most popular make of new private cars licensed in March 2024.

Statistician's Comment

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (10 April 2024) published Vehicles licensed for the first time for March 2024.

Commenting on the data, Damien Linehan, Statistician in the Transport Section of the CSO, said: “Today’s figures from the CSO show the continued growth in the number of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles licensed in Ireland. The number of new petrol & electric cars licensed increased by 59% from 7,032 in the first three months of 2023 to 11,202 in the first three months of 2024. In the first three months of 2024, 15,284 new cars licensed were petrol cars compared with 16,292 in the same period in 2023, a decrease of 6%. At the same time, new diesel cars licensed have increased by 14% in the same period.

Used Private Cars

There were 4,026 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in the first three months of 2024, compared with 4,395 in the first three months of 2023, a fall of 8%. The total number of used vehicles licensed in the first three months of 2024 was up 19% compared with the same period in 2023. (See Table 1)

Most Popular Car Brands

Data also shows that Skoda (1,959) was the most popular make of new private car licensed in March 2024, followed by Toyota (1,865), Volkswagen (1,852), Hyundai (1,082) and Kia (987). Together, these five makes represent just over half (52%) of all new private cars licensed in March 2024 (See Table 4).

The most popular brand of new electric car licensed in March 2024 was Tesla Model Y (234) followed by Tesla Model 3 (189) and MG4 (106) (See TEM28 for further information)”

Editor's Note

Registration and licensing figures may differ in a given month for a number of reasons, some of which are outlined below:

Vehicles registered in the latter part of a particular month may not be licensed until a later month because of the time lapse between registration and first licensing.
In some cases, a vehicle may be registered by a dealership in advance of a sale.
Registered vehicles which are not used in a public place (e.g. tractors for use exclusively on the land) may not need to be licensed.

Table 1: Number of vehicles licensed for the first time
	March				January - March
	2023	2024	Change		2023	2024	Change
New private cars	15,782	14,916	-866	-5%	45,853	49,756	3,903	9%
New goods vehicles	2,870	2,872	2	1%	7,721	8,808	1,087	14%
New other vehicles	1,527	1,432	-95	-6%	4,147	4,244	97	2%
Total new vehicles	20,179	19,220	-959	-5%	57,721	62,808	5,087	9%

Used private cars	4,529	5,280	751	17%	11,877	14,874	2,995	25%
Used goods vehicles	869	871	2	0%	2,187	2,474	287	13%
Used other vehicles	1,097	929	-168	-15%	2,668	2,560	-108	-4%
Total used vehicles	6,495	7,080	585	9%	16,732	19,908	3,176	19%

Open in Excel: Vehicles licensed for the first time March 2024 Table 1 (XLS 16KB)

Visit Table TEM01 on PxStat

Cars Licensed

Figure 1 shows data on the number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time in March 2020 to March 2024

Table 2 Number of vehicles licensed for the first time classified by taxation class

Fuel & Emissions Type

Table 3A: Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO2 emission band and fuel type, March 2024

Table 3B Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO2 emission band and fuel type, January-March 2024

Car Makes

	Most popular makes of new cars, March 2024
Skoda	13
Toyota	13
Volkswagen	12
Hyundai	7
Kia	7
Other	48

	Most popular makes of new cars, March 2023
Skoda	10
Toyota	13
Volkswagen	10
Hyundai	6
Kia	8
Other	52

Table 4 Number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time by make, March 2024

Seasonally Adjusted Figures

X-axis label	Unadjusted data	Adjusted data	Trend
March 2019	14404	10055	9858
April 2019	13794	10607	10042
May 2019	9126	9759	10021
June 2019	3858	10173	9759
July 2019	18741	9266	9300
August 2019	7202	8809	8767
September 2019	4104	7491	8334
October 2019	3214	7668	8103
November 2019	1676	8028	8058
December 2019	729	8058	8129
January 2020	20665	8668	8229
February 2020	13263	8508	8259
March 2020	10239	6847	8188
April 2020	1338	1069	1099
May 2020	1490	1704	2723
June 2020	2189	5205	5227
July 2020	15329	7723	7804
August 2020	7360	8803	9026
September 2020	5747	9042	9129
October 2020	4189	9473	9145
November 2020	1468	6373	9004
December 2020	1032	10422	8712
January 2021	16948	8151	8323
February 2021	11672	7801	7963
March 2021	10672	6526	7728
April 2021	8214	7093	7670
May 2021	7337	8201	7747
June 2021	4980	11006	7882
July 2021	20232	10714	8004
August 2021	8563	9302	8064
September 2021	6354	9308	8062
October 2021	3882	8524	8011
November 2021	2167	8652	7960
December 2021	832	8143	7939
January 2022	15814	7999	7921
February 2022	13643	9345	7905
March 2022	11872	7881	7882
April 2022	10045	8375	7871
May 2022	7120	7670	7908
June 2022	3774	7843	8048
July 2022	15078	8269	8289
August 2022	8942	8555	8571
September 2022	7315	10412	8806
October 2022	4527	9531	8948
November 2022	2353	9260	9018
December 2022	866	8549	9064
January 2023	16787	8625	9204
February 2023	13284	9431	9468
March 2023	15782	10177	9824
April 2023	11277	10117	10186
May 2023	10452	10477	10438
June 2023	5584	11031	10476
July 2023	18106	9901	10326
August 2023	11328	10406	10110
September 2023	6882	9826	9930
October 2023	4587	9485	9832
November 2023	2291	9407	9824
December 2023	1064	10474	9886
January 2024	20861	10220
February 2024	13979	9841
March 2024	14916	9968

Table 5 Seasonally adjusted number of vehicles licensed for the first time classified by taxation class

Imported Cars

X-axis label	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024 to date
<1 year old	2	1	1	1	0
1-2 years old	18	11	7	9	8
3-5 years old	56	56	36	29	27
6-9 years old	20	25	42	42	41
Over 10 years old	5	7	14	19	24

Table 6 Number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time

Cars Licensed by Fuel Type

Table 7 Number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time by fuel type

Figure 6 shows the share of new private cars licensed by fuel type from October 2023 to March 2024. In March 2024, electric cars were 13% of all new private cars licensed.

The share of electric cars in the total number of new cars licensed grew from 1% in 2018 to 19% in 2023.

At the same time, the share of diesel cars is falling. In 2018, 54% of all new cars licensed were diesel cars compared with 22% in 2023. See figure 7 and figure 8.

X-axis label	Petrol	Diesel	Electric	PHEV	Hybrid	Other
2018	39	54	1	1	5	0
2019	40	47	3	1	8	0
2020	37	43	5	3	12	0
2021	32	34	8	7	18	0
2022	30	27	15	7	20	1
2023	33	22	19	8	17	1

X-axis label	Number of new electric private cars	Percentage of all new private cars
2018	1222	1
2019	3443	3
2020	3940	5
2021	8554	8
2022	15462	15
2023	22493	19

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Table 2: Number of vehicles licensed for the first time classified by taxation class
Taxation Class	March			January - March
Taxation Class	2022	2023	2024	2022	2023	2024
New vehicles
New Private Cars	11,872	15,782	14,916	41,329	45,853	49,756
New Goods Vehicles	2,410	2,870	2,872	6,855	7,721	8,808
New Tractors	244	284	226	728	811	742
New Motor Cycles	310	288	293	878	803	772
New Exempt Vehicles	601	726	680	1,730	1,991	2,057
New Other	148	229	233	409	542	673
Total New Vehicles	15,585	20,179	19,220	51,929	57,721	62,808

Used (imported) vehicles
Used private cars	3,902	4,529	5,280	11,517	11,877	14,874
Used goods vehicles	747	869	871	2,098	2,187	2,474
Used tractors	203	266	231	629	692	626
Used motorcycles	259	295	216	650	668	588
Used other vehicles	448	536	482	1,262	1,308	1,346
Total used vehicles	5,559	6,495	7,080	16,156	16,732	19,908

Total all vehicles	21,144	26,674	26,300	68,085	74,453	82,716

Table 3A: Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO₂ emission band and fuel type, March 2024
Band	Fuel Type							Total
Band	Petrol	Diesel	Electric	Petrol & electric hybrid	Diesel & electric hybrid	Petrol or Diesel plug-in electric hybrid	Other	Total
A	1,905	693	1,884	1,864	66	1,185	0	7,597
B	2,825	1,909	0	793	178	10	0	5,715
C	377	938	0	20	5	0	0	1,340
D	36	47	0	4	2	0	0	89
E	7	13	0	0	2	0	0	22
F	4	27	0	1	0	0	0	32
G	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
Not available	7	111	0	1	0	0	0	119
Total	5,163	3,738	1,884	2,683	253	1,195	0	14,916

Table 4: Number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time by make, March 2024
Make	March			January - March
Make	New	Used (imported)	Total	New	Used (imported)	Total
Audi	534	662	1,196	2,197	1,748	3,945
BMW	635	598	1,233	1,766	1,675	3,441
BYD	154	0	154	625	0	625
Citroen	112	66	178	457	170	627
Cupra	193	3	196	577	11	588
Dacia	380	11	391	1,398	33	1,431
Fiat	83	37	120	166	123	289
Ford	500	253	753	2,018	710	2,728
Honda	17	286	303	61	899	960
Hyundai	1,022	109	1,131	5,003	290	5,293
Jaguar	8	12	20	31	50	81
Kia	987	60	1,047	3,574	201	3,775
Land Rover	122	116	238	450	286	736
Lexus	93	59	152	334	135	469
Mazda	172	67	239	559	190	749
Mercedes Benz	441	362	803	1,346	999	2,345
Mini	58	38	96	184	102	286
Mitsubishi	0	72	72	0	196	196
Nissan	787	267	1,054	2,441	761	3,202
Opel	374	0	374	1,139	2	1,141
Peugeot	437	156	593	1,917	433	2,350
Renault	564	77	641	1,433	226	1,659
Seat	332	45	377	878	134	1,012
Skoda	1,959	108	2,067	5,080	324	5,404
Ssangyong	5	2	7	14	3	17
Subaru	1	6	7	8	11	19
Suzuki	292	77	369	973	206	1,179
Tesla	423	8	431	776	17	793
Toyota	1,865	440	2,305	8,169	1,267	9,436
Vauxhall	0	71	71	0	236	236
Volkswagen	1,852	1,054	2,906	4,606	2,967	7,573
Volvo	249	102	351	672	306	978
Other	265	56	321	904	163	1,067
Total	14,916	5,280	20,196	49,756	14,874	64,630
The information in this table is available in much greater detail in Databases (see PxStat link below)

Table 5: Seasonally adjusted number of vehicles licensed for the first time classified by taxation class
Taxation class	March 2023	February 2024	March 2024	Monthly % change
New vehicles
New private cars	10,177	9,841	9,968	1%
New goods vehicles	2,319	2,478	2,726	10%
New tractors	209	205	198	-3%
New motor cycles	229	227	244	7%
New exempt vehicles	517	529	556	5%
New other	198	206	213	3%
Total new vehicles	13,649	13,486	13,905	3%

Used (imported) vehicles
Used private cars	4,059	4,736	5,182	9%
Used goods vehicles	784	833	907	9%
Used tractors	229	189	219	16%
Used motorcycles	281	241	215	-11%
Used other vehicles	493	456	509	12%
Total used vehicles	5,846	6,455	7,032	9%

Total all vehicles	19,495	19,941	20,937	5%

Table 6: Number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time
Private cars	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024 Jan-Mar
New	84,309	101,853	101,349	117,424	49,756
Used (imported)	78,541	68,042	46,567	50,381	14,874
Total	162,850	169,895	147,916	167,805	64,630
% used (imported)	48%	40%	31%	30%	23%

Vehicles licensed for the first time March 2024