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Vehicles licensed for the first time August 2023

New private cars licensed for the first time up 27% in August 2023 compared with the same month in 2022

Online ISSN: 2009-5678

CSO statistical publication, 11 September 2023, 11am

Key Findings

The number of new cars licensed in August 2023 increased by 2,386 vehicles (27%) compared with August 2022.
In the first eight months of 2023, 19% of all new cars licensed for the first time were electric compared with 13% in the same period in 2022.
Slightly over one-fifth (22%) of new private cars licensed in the first eight months of 2023 were diesel compared with over a quarter (27%) in the same period in 2022.
The number of used cars licensed in the first eight months of 2023 increased by 5% compared with the same period in 2022 (33,359 versus 31,762).
There were 10,739 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in the first eight months of 2023, compared with 11,396 in first eight months of 2022, a fall of 6%.
Volkswagen (1,543) was the most popular make of new private cars licensed in August 2023.

Statistician's Comment

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (11 September 2023) published Vehicles licensed for the first time for August 2023.

Commenting on the data, Dr Nele van der Wielen, 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 electric cars licensed has increased by two-thirds (64%) from 11,618 in the first eight months of 2022 to 19,021 in the first eight months of 2023. In the period January to August 2023, 34,445 new cars licensed were petrol cars compared with 25,442 in the same period in 2022, an increase of 35%. At the same time, new diesel cars licensed have decreased by 4% in the same period.

Used Private Cars

There were 10,739 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in the first eight months of 2023, compared with 11,396 in the same period in 2022, a fall of 6%.

The total number of used vehicles licensed in the period January to August 2023 was up 6% compared with the same period in 2022 (See table 1).

Most Popular Car Brands

Data also shows that Volkswagen (1,543) was the most popular make of new private car licensed in August 2023, followed by Hyundai (1,334), Toyota (1,175), Skoda (973), and Kia (790).

Together, these five makes represent just over a half (51%) of all new private cars licensed in August 2023 (See table 4).”

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.

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.

Table 1: Number of vehicles licensed for the first time
	August				January - August
	2022	2023	Change		2022	2023	Change
New private cars	8,942	11,328	2,386	27%	86,288	102,600	16,312	19%
New goods vehicles	2,066	2,724	658	32%	16,388	20,961	4,573	28%
New other vehicles	1,250	1,324	74	6%	9,608	10,614	1,006	10%
Total new vehicles	12,258	15,376	3,118	25%	112,284	134,175	21,891	19%

Used private cars	4,390	4,559	169	4%	31,762	33,359	1,597	5%
Used goods vehicles	613	848	235	38%	5,352	6,266	914	17%
Used other vehicles	975	966	-9	-1%	7,588	7,796	208	3%
Total used vehicles	5,978	6,373	395	7%	44,702	47,421	2,719	6%

Open in Excel: Vehicles licensed for the first time August 2023 Table 1 (XLS 16KB)

Visit Table TEM01 on PxStat

Tables and Graphs

Figure 1 shows data on the number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time in August 2019 to August 2023

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

	Most popular makes of new cars, August 2023
Volkswagen	14
Hyundai	12
Toyota	10
Skoda	9
Kia	7
Other	49

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

Table 3A: Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO2 emission band and fuel type, August 2023

Table 3B Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO2 emission band and fuel type, January-August 2023

Table 4 Number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time by make, August 2023

X-axis label	Unadjusted data	Adjusted data	Trend
July 2018	20743	10164	9715
August 2018	7681	9246	9458
September 2018	4397	9044	9198
October 2018	2874	7270	8995
November 2018	1647	8714	8941
December 2018	778	9294	9076
January 2019	22279	9096	9375
February 2019	14178	9228	9737
March 2019	14404	10528	10037
April 2019	13794	10580	10162
May 2019	9126	10039	10020
June 2019	3858	9941	9615
July 2019	18741	8711	9041
August 2019	7202	8651	8461
September 2019	4104	7574	8072
October 2019	3214	7606	7932
November 2019	1676	7977	7962
December 2019	729	8076	8060
January 2020	20665	8724	8129
February 2020	13263	8499	8114
March 2020	10239	7393	8032
April 2020	1338	1077	1096
May 2020	1490	1774	2608
June 2020	2189	4922	4929
July 2020	15329	7307	7390
August 2020	7360	8506	8702
September 2020	5747	8908	8967
October 2020	4189	9409	9073
November 2020	1468	6367	8999
December 2020	1032	10572	8757
January 2021	16948	8267	8445
February 2021	11672	7734	8227
March 2021	10672	6960	8221
April 2021	8214	7141	8444
May 2021	7337	8635	8786
June 2021	4980	10389	9087
July 2021	20232	10220	9230
August 2021	8563	9099	9168
September 2021	6354	8966	8971
October 2021	3882	8400	8745
November 2021	2167	8575	8577
December 2021	832	8446	8510
January 2022	15814	8227	8499
February 2022	13643	9085	8454
March 2022	11872	8261	8342
April 2022	10045	8352	8192
May 2022	7120	7954	8076
June 2022	3774	7649	8071
July 2022	15078	8088	8203
August 2022	8942	8646	8445
September 2022	7315	9716	8700
October 2022	4527	9244	8887
November 2022	2353	8996	9004
December 2022	866	9138	9089
January 2023	16787	8934	9245
February 2023	13284	9068	9514
March 2023	15782	10198	9837
April 2023	11277	10111	10149
May 2023	10452	10682
June 2023	5584	11008
July 2023	18106	10006

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

X-axis label	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023 to date
<1 year old	2	2	1	1	1
1-2 years old	18	18	11	7	8
3-5 years old	50	56	56	36	29
6-9 years old	26	20	25	42	42
Over 10 years old	5	5	7	14	20

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

Figure 6 shows the share of new electric cars licensed from March 2023 to August 2023. In August 2023, electric cars were one-fifth (20%) 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 15% 2022.

At the same time, the share of diesel cars is falling. In 2018, 54% of all new cars licensed were diesel cars compared with 27% in 2022. See figure 7 and figure 8.

X-axis label	Petrol	Diesel	Electric	PHEV	Hybrid	Other
2017	31	65	0	0	0
2018	39	54	1	1	0
2019	40	47	3	1	0
2020	37	43	5	3	0
2021	32	34	8	7	0
2022	30	27	15	7	20	1

X-axis label	Number of new electric private cars licensed	EV cars % of new cars licensed
2017	623	0
2018	1222	1
2019	3443	3
2020	3940	5
2021	8554	8
2022	15462	15

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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	2021	2022	2023	2021	2022	2023
New vehicles
New Private Cars	8,563	8,942	11,328	88,618	86,288	102,600
New Goods Vehicles	2,618	2,066	2,724	20,330	16,388	20,961
New Tractors	210	183	199	1,918	1,845	1,879
New Motor Cycles	272	308	252	1,724	2,302	2,313
New Exempt Vehicles	566	631	742	4,647	4,338	5,059
New Other	133	128	131	1,146	1,123	1,363
Total New Vehicles	12,362	12,258	15,376	118,383	112,284	134,175

Used (imported) vehicles
Used private cars	5,219	4,390	4,559	50,771	31,762	33,359
Used goods vehicles	841	613	848	7,641	5,352	6,266
Used tractors	239	221	180	2,501	1,651	1,824
Used motorcycles	292	263	265	2,591	2,189	2,122
Used other vehicles	572	491	521	4,661	3,748	3,850
Total used vehicles	7,163	5,978	6,373	68,165	44,702	47,421

Total all vehicles	19,525	18,236	21,749	186,548	156,986	181,596

Table 3A: Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO₂ emission band and fuel type, August 2023
Band	Fuel Type							Total
Band	Petrol	Diesel	Electric	Petrol & electric hybrid	Diesel & electric hybrid	Petrol or Diesel plug-in electric hybrid	Other	Total
A	1,052	385	2,255	1,255	65	1,034	0	6,046
B	1,957	1,527	0	512	71	0	1	4,068
C	232	689	0	3	4	1	0	929
D	23	112	0	3	2	0	0	140
E	7	3	0	1	0	0	0	11
F	5	20	0	0	0	0	0	25
G	6	3	0	0	0	0	0	9
Not available	8	92	0	0	0	0	0	100
Total	3,290	2,831	2,255	1,774	142	1,035	1	11,328

Table 3B: Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO₂ emission band and fuel type, January-August 2023
	Fuel Type							Total
Band	Petrol	Diesel	Electric	Petrol & electric hybrid	Diesel & electric hybrid	Petrol or Diesel plug-in electric hybrid	Other	Total
A	11,312	2,517	19,021	11,532	370	8,369	3	53,124
B	20,398	13,021	0	4,582	1,622	0	1	39,624
C	2,341	5,175	0	75	17	4	0	7,612
D	177	788	0	36	9	1	0	1,011
E	70	92	0	3	15	0	0	180
F	33	206	0	5	0	0	0	244
G	83	65	0	0	0	0	0	148
Not available	31	620	0	6	0	0	0	657
Total	34,445	22,484	19,021	16,239	2,033	8,374	4	102,600

Table 4: Number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time by make, August 2023
Make	August			January - August
Make	New	Used (imported)	Total	New	Used (imported)	Total
Audi	474	496	970	4,539	3,404	7,943
BMW	423	382	805	3,810	3,174	6,984
Citroen	118	56	174	1,171	396	1,567
Dacia	339	9	348	4,210	90	4,300
Fiat	72	36	108	515	265	780
Ford	534	211	745	5,125	1,870	6,995
Honda	18	330	348	188	2,162	2,350
Hyundai	1,334	113	1,447	10,154	838	10,992
Jaguar	5	23	28	68	163	231
Kia	790	74	864	7,382	506	7,888
Land Rover	97	53	150	576	467	1,043
Lexus	77	33	110	523	234	757
Mazda	110	61	171	1,069	637	1,706
Mercedes Benz	210	240	450	2,453	1,646	4,099
Mini	44	45	89	557	229	786
Mitsubishi	1	63	64	2	436	438
Nissan	320	296	616	3,727	2,621	6,348
Opel	147	1	148	2,567	5	2,572
Peugeot	378	134	512	3,849	992	4,841
Renault	436	74	510	3,553	553	4,106
Seat	239	42	281	2,190	303	2,493
Skoda	973	71	1,044	8,105	694	8,799
Ssangyong	3	1	4	61	3	64
Subaru	4	4	8	36	36	72
Suzuki	188	76	264	1,716	536	2,252
Tesla	322	7	329	2,462	54	2,516
Toyota	1,175	434	1,609	14,652	3,001	17,653
Vauxhall	0	88	88	1	665	666
Volkswagen	1,543	965	2,508	11,358	6,301	17,659
Volvo	194	78	272	1,910	630	2,540
Other	760	63	823	4,071	448	4,519
Total	11,328	4,559	15,887	102,600	33,359	135,959
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 2022	July 2023	August 2023	Monthly % change
New vehicles
New private cars	8,507	10,083	10,722	6%
New goods vehicles	1,932	2,687	2,617	-3%
New tractors	178	204	198	-3%
New motor cycles	250	273	206	-25%
New exempt vehicles	492	528	555	5%
New other	126	137	131	-4%
Total new vehicles	11,485	13,912	14,429	4%

Used (imported) vehicles
Used private cars	4,064	4,230	4,196	-1%
Used goods vehicles	632	806	879	9%
Used tractors	235	264	194	-27%
Used motorcycles	245	262	243	-7%
Used other vehicles	442	466	465	0%
Total used vehicles	5,618	6,028	5,977	-1%

Total all vehicles	17,103	19,940	20,406	2%

Vehicles licensed for the first time August 2023