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In the first four months of 2024, 13% (8,224) of all new cars licensed for the first time were electric compared with 17% (9,828) in the same period in 2023.
Looking at annual changes, the number of new cars licensed in April 2024 increased by 1,132 vehicles (10%) when compared with April 2023.
Almost a quarter (24%) of new private cars licensed in the first four months of 2024 were diesel compared with over a fifth (22%) in the same period in 2023.
The number of used cars licensed in the first four months of 2024 rose by 27% compared with the same period in 2023 (20,273 versus 16,022).
There were 5,451 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in the first four months of 2024, compared with 5,779 in first four months of 2023, a fall of 6%.
Skoda (1,611) was the most popular make of new private cars licensed in April 2024.
Registration and licensing figures may differ in a given month for a number of reasons, some of which are outlined below:
| Table 1: Number of vehicles licensed for the first time | |||||||||
| April | January - April | ||||||||
| 2023 | 2024 | Change | 2023 | 2024 | Change | ||||
| New private cars | 11,277 | 12,409 | 1,132 | 10% | 57,130 | 62,165 | 5,035 | 9% | |
| New goods vehicles | 2,388 | 3,920 | 1,532 | 64% | 10,109 | 12,728 | 2,619 | 26% | |
| New other vehicles | 1,225 | 1,426 | 201 | 16% | 5,372 | 5,670 | 298 | 6% | |
| Total new vehicles | 14,890 | 17,755 | 2,865 | 19% | 72,611 | 80,563 | 7,952 | 11% | |
| Used private cars | 4,145 | 5,399 | 1,254 | 30% | 16,022 | 20,273 | 4,251 | 27% | |
| Used goods vehicles | 775 | 1,026 | 251 | 32% | 2,962 | 3,500 | 538 | 18% | |
| Used other vehicles | 1,000 | 1,159 | 159 | 16% | 3,668 | 3,719 | 51 | 1% | |
| Total used vehicles | 5,920 | 7,584 | 1,664 | 28% | 22,652 | 27,492 | 4,840 | 21% | |
Figure 1 shows data on the number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time in April 2020 to April 2024
| Most popular makes of new cars, April 2024 | |
| Skoda | 13 |
| Toyota | 12 |
| Volkswagen | 11 |
| Hyundai | 8 |
| Kia | 7 |
| Other | 50 |
| Most popular makes of new cars, April 2023 | |
| Skoda | 9 |
| Toyota | 12 |
| Volkswagen | 12 |
| Hyundai | 5 |
| Kia | 8 |
| Other | 53 |
| X-axis label | Unadjusted data | Adjusted data | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 2019 | 13794 | 10603 | 10047 |
| May 2019 | 9126 | 9749 | 10019 |
| June 2019 | 3858 | 10169 | 9746 |
| July 2019 | 18741 | 9257 | 9274 |
| August 2019 | 7202 | 8798 | 8732 |
| September 2019 | 4104 | 7534 | 8297 |
| October 2019 | 3214 | 7657 | 8071 |
| November 2019 | 1676 | 8023 | 8033 |
| December 2019 | 729 | 8055 | 8110 |
| January 2020 | 20665 | 8661 | 8214 |
| February 2020 | 13263 | 8497 | 8244 |
| March 2020 | 10239 | 6870 | 8170 |
| April 2020 | 1338 | 1069 | 1096 |
| May 2020 | 1490 | 1703 | 2718 |
| June 2020 | 2189 | 5197 | 5221 |
| July 2020 | 15329 | 7715 | 7800 |
| August 2020 | 7360 | 8798 | 9027 |
| September 2020 | 5747 | 9071 | 9133 |
| October 2020 | 4189 | 9465 | 9151 |
| November 2020 | 1468 | 6375 | 9008 |
| December 2020 | 1032 | 10440 | 8710 |
| January 2021 | 16948 | 8158 | 8313 |
| February 2021 | 11672 | 7787 | 7944 |
| March 2021 | 10672 | 6560 | 7702 |
| April 2021 | 8214 | 7072 | 7641 |
| May 2021 | 7337 | 8189 | 7720 |
| June 2021 | 4980 | 10988 | 7861 |
| July 2021 | 20232 | 10698 | 7991 |
| August 2021 | 8563 | 9292 | 8058 |
| September 2021 | 6354 | 9320 | 8062 |
| October 2021 | 3882 | 8525 | 8020 |
| November 2021 | 2167 | 8658 | 7979 |
| December 2021 | 832 | 8177 | 7965 |
| January 2022 | 15814 | 8024 | 7950 |
| February 2022 | 13643 | 9341 | 7927 |
| March 2022 | 11872 | 7930 | 7892 |
| April 2022 | 10045 | 8313 | 7866 |
| May 2022 | 7120 | 7646 | 7890 |
| June 2022 | 3774 | 7824 | 8027 |
| July 2022 | 15078 | 8255 | 8273 |
| August 2022 | 8942 | 8544 | 8564 |
| September 2022 | 7315 | 10410 | 8805 |
| October 2022 | 4527 | 9538 | 8954 |
| November 2022 | 2353 | 9282 | 9029 |
| December 2022 | 866 | 8605 | 9077 |
| January 2023 | 16787 | 8672 | 9212 |
| February 2023 | 13284 | 9460 | 9464 |
| March 2023 | 15782 | 10260 | 9803 |
| April 2023 | 11277 | 9964 | 10150 |
| May 2023 | 10452 | 10419 | 10392 |
| June 2023 | 5584 | 10989 | 10428 |
| July 2023 | 18106 | 9875 | 10288 |
| August 2023 | 11328 | 10395 | 10092 |
| September 2023 | 6882 | 9836 | 9935 |
| October 2023 | 4587 | 9502 | 9851 |
| November 2023 | 2291 | 9439 | 9850 |
| December 2023 | 1064 | 10548 | 9930 |
| January 2024 | 20861 | 10290 | 10060 |
| February 2024 | 13979 | 9910 | |
| March 2024 | 14916 | 10065 | |
| April 2024 | 12409 | 10559 |
| 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 |
Figure 6 shows the share of new private cars licensed by fuel type from November 2023 to April 2024. In April 2024, electric cars were 12% 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 |
Check the rankings of new vehicles for the most recent month as well as year
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (10 May 2024) published Vehicles licensed for the first time for April 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 (PHEV) vehicles licensed in Ireland. The number of PHEVs rose by 10% (from 4,752 to 5,245) in the first four months of 2024.
New petrol and electric cars were the most popular vehicles licensed in the first four months of 2024, accounting for one-fifth (21%) of all new cars licensed. In terms of car numbers, the number of petrol and electric vehicles licensed rose from 8,367 in the first four months of 2023 to 13,270 in the first four months of 2024. At the same time, new diesel cars licensed have increased by 17% in the same period and account for almost a quarter (24%) of all new private cars licensed.
Used Private Cars
There were 5,451 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in the first four months of 2024, compared with 5,779 in the first four months of 2023, a fall of 6%.
The total number of used vehicles licensed in the first four months of 2024 was up 21% compared with the same period in 2023 (See Table 1).
Most Popular Car Brands
Data also shows that Skoda (1,611) was the most popular make of new private car licensed in April 2024, followed by Toyota (1,455), Volkswagen (1,361), Hyundai (940), and Kia (897). Together, these five makes represent half (50%) of all new private cars licensed in April 2024 (See Table 4).
The most popular brand of new electric car licensed in April 2024 was Volkswagen ID.3 (134) followed by Volkswagen ID.4 (93) and BYD Seal (91) (See PxStat Table TEM28 for further information).”