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Vehicles licensed for the first time August 2022

Number of used private cars licensed in first eight months of 2022 is down 37% compared with the same period in 2021

Online ISSN: 2009-5678

CSO statistical release, 08 September 2022, 11am

Key Findings

The number of new cars licensed in August 2022 rose by 379 (4%) vehicles compared with August 2021.
In the first eight months of 2022, 21% of all new cars licensed for the first time were electric or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) compared with 15% in the same period in 2021.
There was a fall of 16% in the number of used private cars licensed in August 2022 compared with August 2021.
In the first eight months of 2022, 27% of new private cars licensed were diesel, compared with 34% in the same period in 2021.
The number of used cars licensed in the first eight months of 2022 decreased by 37% compared with the same period in 2021 (31,762 versus 50,771).
There were 11,396 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in the first eight months of 2022, compared with 28,918 in the same period in 2021, a fall of 61%.
Volkswagen (1,575) was the most popular make of new private cars licensed in August 2022.

Statistician's Comment

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (08 September 2022) published Vehicles licensed for the first time for August 2022.

Commenting on the data, Nele van der Wielen, 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 electric cars licensed has increased by 76% from 6,594 in the first eight months of 2021 to 11,618 in 2022. At the same time the number of new diesel cars is decreasing. For the first eight months of 2022, 23,397 new cars licensed were diesel cars compared with 30,470 in the same period in 2021. There were 31,762 used private cars licensed in the first eight months of 2022 compared with 50,771 in the same period in 2021. The total number of used vehicles licensed in the first eight months of 2022 was down 34% compared with the same period in 2021 See table 1.

Data also shows that Volkswagen (1,575) was the most popular make of new private car licensed in August, followed by Toyota (942), Kia (777), Skoda (705) and Hyundai (608). Together, these five makes represent more than half (52%) of all new private cars licensed in August 2022. See table 4."

Table 1: Number of vehicles licensed for the first time
	August				January - August
	2021	2022	Change		2021	2022	Change
New private cars	8,563	8,942	379	4%	88,618	86,288	-2,330	-3%
New goods vehicles	2,618	2,066	-552	-21%	20,330	16,388	-3,942	-19%
New other vehicles	1,181	1,250	69	6%	9,435	9,608	173	2%
Total new vehicles	12,362	12,258	-104	-1%	118,383	112,284	-6,099	-5%

Used private cars	5,219	4,390	-829	-16%	50,771	31,762	-19,009	-37%
Used goods vehicles	841	613	-228	-27%	7,641	5,352	-2,289	-30%
Used other vehicles	1,103	975	-128	-12%	9,753	7,588	-2,165	-22%
Total used vehicles	7,163	5,978	-1,185	-17%	68,165	44,702	-23,463	-34%

Open in Excel: Vehicles licensed for the first time August 2022 Table 1 (XLS 11KB)

Visit Table TEM01 on PxStat

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.

Seasonally adjusting the Vehicle Licensing series during the COVID-19 crisis period will be challenging until the scale and shape of its impact on the time series is better understood. The initial seasonally adjusted results might be revised for some months ahead as future observations become available. Users should be aware that there is increased uncertainty around the seasonally adjusted figures during this period.

Tables and Graphs

Figure 1 shows data on the number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time in August 2018 to 2022.

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

	Most popular makes of new cars, August 2022
Volkswagen	18
Toyota	11
Kia	9
Skoda	8
Hyundai	7
Other	48

	Most popular makes of new cars, August 2021
Volkswagen	13
Toyota	10
Kia	8
Skoda	8
Hyundai	10
Other	52

Table 3A: Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO2 emission band and fuel type, August 2022

Table 3B Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO2 emission band and fuel type, January-August 2022

Table 4 Number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time by make, August 2022

X-axis label	Unadjusted data	Adjusted data	Trend
August 2017	8105	9937	9856
September 2017	4828	10033	9700
October 2017	3255	9441	9621
November 2017	1594	9313	9625
December 2017	601	9248	9711
January 2018	25813	10257	9848
February 2018	16501	10425	10002
March 2018	16088	10034	10100
April 2018	11557	9849	10111
May 2018	9362	10092	10034
June 2018	3716	9814	9910
July 2018	20743	10096	9755
August 2018	7681	9391	9579
September 2018	4397	9445	9355
October 2018	2874	7832	9130
November 2018	1647	9004	8991
December 2018	778	10992	8988
January 2019	22279	9114	9136
February 2019	14178	8977	9371
March 2019	14404	10046	9600
April 2019	13794	10815	9730
May 2019	9126	9707	9686
June 2019	3858	9769	9466
July 2019	18741	8726	9143
August 2019	7202	9061	8840
September 2019	4104	8290	8635
October 2019	3214	8398	8552
November 2019	1676	8607	8533
December 2019	729	8756	8538
January 2020	20665	8793	8535
February 2020	13263	8260	8533
March 2020	10239	6893	6996
April 2020	1338	1104	1135
May 2020	1490	1697	2401
June 2020	2189	4856	4378
July 2020	15329	7228	6867
August 2020	7360	8995	9273
September 2020	5747	10560	10874
October 2020	4189	10818	11180
November 2020	1468	6825	10816
December 2020	1032	11072	10521
January 2021	16948	8159	10240
February 2021	11672	7088	9966
March 2021	10672	6803	9707
April 2021	8214	7143	9512
May 2021	7337	8445	9409
June 2021	4980	10610	9392
July 2021	20232	10249	9413
August 2021	8563	9329	9393
September 2021	6354	11266	9287
October 2021	3882	9551	9078
November 2021	2167	9170	8831
December 2021	832	8619	8582
January 2022	15814	7961	8361
February 2022	13643	8168	8181
March 2022	11872	8239	8067
April 2022	10045	8360	8044
May 2022	7120	7923	8095
June 2022	3774	8137
July 2022	15078	7940
August 2022	8942	8830

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

X-axis label	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022 to date
<1 year old	1.9	1.7	1.6	1.1	0.6
1-2 years old	18.3	17.6	17.7	11.4	6.6
3-5 years old	50.8	50.3	56.3	56	35.4
6-9 years old	24.4	25.6	19.8	24.9	43.3
Over 10 years old	4.6	4.8	4.7	6.6	14.1

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

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

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Table 2: Number of vehicles licensed for the first time classified by taxation class
Taxation Class	August			January - August
Taxation Class	2020	2021	2022	2020	2021	2022
New vehicles
New Private Cars	7,360	8,563	8,942	71,873	88,618	86,288
New Goods Vehicles	2,247	2,618	2,066	14,317	20,330	16,388
New Tractors	208	210	183	1,686	1,918	1,845
New Motor Cycles	208	272	308	1,298	1,724	2,302
New Exempt Vehicles	582	566	631	4,512	4,647	4,338
New Other	101	133	128	817	1,146	1,123
Total New Vehicles	10,706	12,362	12,258	94,503	118,383	112,284

Used (imported) vehicles
Used private cars	8,032	5,219	4,390	42,888	50,771	31,762
Used goods vehicles	1,022	841	613	6,586	7,641	5,352
Used tractors	257	239	221	1,484	2,501	1,651
Used motorcycles	407	292	263	1,981	2,591	2,189
Used other vehicles	475	572	491	2,821	4,661	3,748
Total used vehicles	10,193	7,163	5,978	55,760	68,165	44,702

Total all vehicles	20,899	19,525	18,236	150,263	186,548	156,986

Table 3A: Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO₂ emission band and fuel type, August 2022
Band	Fuel Type							Total
Band	Petrol	Diesel	Electric	Petrol & electric hybrid	Diesel & electric hybrid	Petrol or Diesel plug-in electric hybrid	Other	Total
A	734	281	1,513	678	25	648	7	3,886
B	2,014	1,543	0	367	67	0	12	4,003
C	305	481	0	22	2	3	0	813
D	41	68	0	4	0	0	0	113
E	15	26	0	1	2	0	0	44
F	5	16	0	0	0	0	0	21
G	9	2	0	0	0	0	0	11
Not available	2	49	0	0	0	0	0	51
Total	3,125	2,466	1,513	1,072	96	651	19	8,942

Table 3B: Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO₂ emission band and fuel type, January-August 2022
Band	Fuel Type							Total
Band	Petrol	Diesel	Electric	Petrol & electric hybrid	Diesel & electric hybrid	Petrol or Diesel plug-in electric hybrid	Other	Total
A	6,152	2,662	11,618	12,240	160	6,362	407	39,601
B	15,880	14,869	0	5,255	361	48	284	36,697
C	3,000	4,248	0	227	215	89	9	7,788
D	249	737	0	71	26	0	0	1,083
E	57	336	0	26	38	0	0	457
F	29	147	0	6	1	0	0	183
G	57	29	0	3	0	0	0	89
Not available	18	369	0	2	1	0	0	390
Total	25,442	23,397	11,618	17,830	802	6,499	700	86,288

Table 4: Number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time by make, August 2022
Make	August			January - August
Make	New	Used (imported)	Total	New	Used (imported)	Total
Audi	413	375	788	3,448	2,828	6,276
BMW	313	356	669	3,439	3,108	6,547
Citroen	131	45	176	1,177	348	1,525
Dacia	370	8	378	2,551	85	2,636
Fiat	52	34	86	290	342	632
Ford	317	231	548	4,096	1,970	6,066
Honda	15	355	370	311	2,012	2,323
Hyundai	608	102	710	10,806	903	11,709
Jaguar	17	21	38	134	197	331
Kia	777	53	830	6,603	481	7,084
Land Rover	41	46	87	406	341	747
Lexus	29	28	57	357	290	647
Mazda	106	86	192	900	492	1,392
Mercedes Benz	347	173	520	3,012	1,548	4,560
Mini	73	27	100	463	227	690
Mitsubishi	0	53	53	3	398	401
Nissan	277	375	652	3,525	2,566	6,091
Opel	310	0	310	2,416	6	2,422
Peugeot	367	129	496	3,971	772	4,743
Renault	374	67	441	3,116	502	3,618
Seat	141	44	185	1,413	364	1,777
Skoda	705	100	805	6,089	660	6,749
Ssangyong	34	0	34	89	5	94
Subaru	1	4	5	11	42	53
Suzuki	159	74	233	1,019	514	1,533
Tesla	5	3	8	698	22	720
Toyota	942	514	1,456	14,339	3,349	17,688
Vauxhall	0	101	101	0	885	885
Volkswagen	1,575	853	2,428	8,824	5,675	14,499
Volvo	201	80	281	1,407	529	1,936
z. Other	242	53	295	1,375	301	1,676
z. Total	8,942	4,390	13,332	86,288	31,762	118,050
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	August 2021	July 2022	August 2022	Monthly % change
New vehicles
New private cars	9,329	7,940	8,830	11%
New goods vehicles	2,281	1,676	1,724	3%
New tractors	208	208	174	-16%
New motor cycles	224	247	249	1%
New exempt vehicles	468	438	489	12%
New other	135	136	123	-10%
Total new vehicles	12,645	10,645	11,589	9%

Used (imported) vehicles
Used private cars	5,159	4,221	4,187	-1%
Used goods vehicles	922	632	638	1%
Used tractors	258	193	226	17%
Used motorcycles	272	242	244	1%
Used other vehicles	557	455	455	0%
Total used vehicles	7,168	5,743	5,750	0%

Total all vehicles	19,813	16,388	17,339	6%

Vehicles licensed for the first time August 2022