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Vehicles licensed for the first time December and Year 2022

Number of new electric cars licensed for the first time in 2022 increased by 81% compared with 2021

Online ISSN: 2009-5678

CSO statistical publication, 12 January 2023, 11am

Key Findings

There was a slight decrease in the number of new cars licensed in 2022 (101,349) compared with 2021 (101,853).
The number of used cars licensed in 2022 decreased by 32% compared with 2021 (46,567 versus 68,042).
The number of new electric cars licensed has increased by 81% from 8,554 in 2021 to 15,462 in 2022.
In 2022, 27% (27,188) of new private cars licensed were diesel, compared with 34% (34,396) in 2021.
There were 16,370 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in 2022, compared with 36,495 in 2021, a fall of 55%.
Toyota (15,318) was the most popular make of new private car licensed in 2022.
The most popular model of new private car licensed in 2022 was Hyundai Tucson followed by Toyota Yaris, Toyota Corolla, and Kia Sportage. See Ireland's Top Motors.

Statistician's Comment

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (12 January 2023) published Vehicles licensed for the first time for December and Year 2022.

Commenting on the data, 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 cars licensed in Ireland. The number of new electric cars licensed increased by 81% from 8,554 in 2021 to 15,462 in 2022. At the same time, the number of new diesel cars decreased. In 2022, 27,188 new cars licensed were diesel cars compared with 34,396 in 2021.

Used Private Cars

There were 46,567 used private cars licensed in 2022 compared with 68,042 in 2021. The total number of used vehicles licensed in 2022 was down 29% compared with 2021. (See table 1)

Most Popular Car Brands

Data also shows that Toyota (15,318) was the most popular make of new private car licensed in 2022, followed by Hyundai (11,869), Volkswagen (11,428), Kia (7,549), and Skoda (7,153). Together, these five makes represent more than half (53%) of all new private cars licensed in 2022. (See table 4).

Of new electric cars licensed in 2022, the top make and model was Volkswagen ID.4 (2,920) followed by Hyundai Ioniq (1,249), and Tesla Model 3 (1,054).

Monthly data

Licensing figures also show that the number of new cars licensed in December 2022 rose by 4% or by 34 vehicles compared with December 2021.”

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 2018 to 2022.

Table 1: Number of vehicles licensed for the first time
	December				January - December
	2021	2022	Change		2021	2022	Change
New private cars	832	866	34	4%	101,853	101,349	-504	0%
New goods vehicles	697	859	162	23%	28,387	23,655	-4,732	-17%
Other new vehicles	259	315	56	22%	12,136	12,244	108	1%
Total new vehicles	1,788	2,040	252	14%	142,376	137,248	-5,128	-4%

Used private cars	3,385	2,886	-499	-15%	68,042	46,567	-21,475	-32%
Used goods vehicles	580	573	-7	-1%	10,631	8,063	-2,568	-24%
Other used vehicles	657	610	47	-7%	13,288	10,823	-2,465	-19%
Total used vehicles	4,622	4,069	-553	-12%	91,961	65,453	-26,508	-29%

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

Visit Table TEM01 on PxStat

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

	Most popular makes of new cars 2021
Toyota	15
Hyundai	12
Volkswagen	11
Kia	7
Skoda	7
Other	47

	Most popular makes of new cars 2021
Toyota	12
Hyundai	10
Volkswagen	12
Kia	6
Skoda	8
Other	51

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

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

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

X-axis label	Unadjusted data	Adjusted data	Trend
December 2017	601	8804	9829
January 2018	25813	10316	9953
February 2018	16501	10397	10059
March 2018	16088	10015	10119
April 2018	11557	9644	10112
May 2018	9362	10131	10037
June 2018	3716	9969	9917
July 2018	20743	10463	9742
August 2018	7681	9457	9503
September 2018	4397	8912	9210
October 2018	2874	7730	8929
November 2018	1647	8878	8778
December 2018	778	10621	8816
January 2019	22279	9023	9037
February 2019	14178	9098	9371
March 2019	14404	9918	9700
April 2019	13794	10462	9933
May 2019	9126	9817	9982
June 2019	3858	10163	9809
July 2019	18741	9297	9469
August 2019	7202	9070	9081
September 2019	4104	7556	8742
October 2019	3214	8181	8514
November 2019	1676	8339	8392
December 2019	729	8604	8370
January 2020	20665	8533	8433
February 2020	13263	8411	8536
March 2020	10239	6886	7017
April 2020	1338	1069	1067
May 2020	1490	1691	2702
June 2020	2189	5244	5264
July 2020	15329	7842	7937
August 2020	7360	9119	9295
September 2020	5747	9228	9635
October 2020	4189	10193	10024
November 2020	1468	6657	10361
December 2020	1032	11043	10561
January 2021	16948	7556	7563
February 2021	11672	7393	7526
March 2021	10672	6858	7500
April 2021	8214	6983	7548
May 2021	7337	8595	7677
June 2021	4980	11551	7850
July 2021	20232	11006	8023
August 2021	8563	9736	8151
September 2021	6354	9402	8223
October 2021	3882	8895	8248
November 2021	2167	9025	8245
December 2021	832	8652	8225
January 2022	15814	7290	8202
February 2022	13643	8489	8178
March 2022	11872	8284	8167
April 2022	10045	8364	8223
May 2022	7120	8209	8387
June 2022	3774	8806	8666
July 2022	15078	8517	9011
August 2022	8942	9516	9338
September 2022	7315	10064	9565
October 2022	4527	9911
November 2022	2353	9508
December 2022	866	9346

Table 5 Number of new vehicles licensed for the first time by body type and taxation class, 2022

X-axis label	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
<1 year old	1.9	1.7	1.6	1.1	1
1-2 years old	18.3	17.6	17.7	11.4	7
3-5 years old	50.8	50.3	56.3	56	36
6-9 years old	24.4	25.6	19.8	24.9	42
Over 10 years old	4.6	4.8	4.7	6.6	14

Table 6 Seasonally adjusted number of vehicles licensed for the first time classified by taxation class

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

Table 8 Number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time by fuel type, December and year

Table 9 Percentage of new private cars licensed for the first time by most popular colour, 2018 - 2022

Additional Data

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Table 2: Number of vehicles licensed for the first time classified by taxation class
Taxation Class	December			January - December
Taxation Class	2020	2021	2022	2020	2021	2022
New vehicles
New private cars	1,032	832	866	84,309	101,853	101,349
New goods vehicles	735	697	859	21,495	28,387	23,655
New tractors	71	86	55	2,190	2,491	2,368
New motor cycles	55	55	52	1,709	2,335	2,871
New exempt vehicles	105	53	132	5,692	5,604	5,534
New other	49	65	76	1,119	1,706	1,471
Total new vehicles	2,047	1,788	2,040	116,514	142,376	137,248

Used (imported) vehicles
Used private cars	8,918	3,385	2,886	78,541	68,042	46,567
Used goods vehicles	1,163	580	573	11,753	10,631	8,063
Used tractors	306	196	170	2,648	3,341	2,381
Used motorcycles	265	129	136	3,384	3,436	3,043
Used other vehicles	618	332	304	5,146	6,511	5,399
Total used vehicles	11,270	4,622	4,069	101,472	91,961	65,453

Total all vehicles	13,317	6,410	6,109	217,986	234,337	202,701

Table 3B: Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO₂ emission band and fuel type, January-December 2022
Band	Fuel Type							Total
Band	Petrol	Diesel	Electric	Petrol & electric hybrid	Diesel & electric hybrid	Petrol or Diesel plug-in electric hybrid	Other fuel types	Total
A	7,553	3,186	15,462	12,917	188	7,307	415	47,028
B	19,178	17,224	0	5,715	417	48	293	42,875
C	3,393	4,835	0	254	217	92	9	8,800
D	286	833	0	91	28	0	0	1,238
E	69	374	0	27	41	0	0	511
F	35	169	0	6	1	0	0	211
G	83	43	0	3	0	0	0	129
Not available	30	524	0	2	1	0	0	557
Total	30,627	27,188	15,462	19,015	893	7,447	717	101,349

Table 4: Number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time by make, December 2022
Make	December			January - December
Make	New	Used (imported)	Total	New	Used (imported)	Total
Audi	41	283	324	4,118	4,159	8,277
BMW	31	240	271	3,943	4,412	8,355
Citroen	16	33	49	1,506	523	2,029
Dacia	97	11	108	3,238	139	3,377
Fiat	3	24	27	356	464	820
Ford	32	179	211	4,863	2,884	7,747
Honda	0	213	213	344	2,986	3,330
Hyundai	24	80	104	11,869	1,258	13,127
Jaguar	1	17	18	164	259	423
Kia	13	48	61	7,549	700	8,249
Land Rover	6	44	50	454	537	991
Lexus	2	25	27	420	404	824
Mazda	5	49	54	1,069	824	1,893
Mercedes Benz	22	132	154	3,560	2,201	5,761
Mini	3	21	24	626	336	962
Mitsubishi	0	33	33	4	603	607
Nissan	19	292	311	3,955	3,939	7,894
Opel	60	1	61	3,071	10	3,081
Peugeot	59	83	142	4,503	1,171	5,674
Renault	78	54	132	4,004	749	4,753
Seat	15	43	58	1,655	535	2,190
Skoda	61	49	110	7,153	956	8,109
Ssangyong	0	1	1	98	10	108
Subaru	0	6	6	14	53	67
Suzuki	11	34	45	1,270	746	2,016
Tesla	5	2	7	1,325	31	1,356
Toyota	77	267	344	15,318	4,868	20,186
Vauxhall	0	52	52	0	1,186	1,186
Volkswagen	140	468	608	11,428	8,379	19,807
Volvo	8	56	64	1,717	769	2,486
Other	37	46	83	1,755	476	2,231
Total	866	2,886	3,752	101,349	46,567	147,916
The information in this table is available in much greater detail in Databases (see PXStat link below)

Table 5: Number of new vehicles licensed for the first time by body type and taxation class, 2022
Body type	Taxation class									Total
	Private cars	Goods vehicles	Tractors	Motor cycles	Exempt vehicles	Other classes
	Private cars	Goods vehicles	Tractors	Motor cycles	Exempt vehicles	Small PSVs	Large PSVs	Machines & contrivances	Other vehicles
Agricultural tractor	0	0	2,215	0	28	0	0	0	0	2,243
Ambulance	0	0	0	0	108	0	0	0	0	108
Articulated tractor unit	0	1,144	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1,144
Box van	1	507	0	0	5	0	0	0	0	513
Bus	0	0	0	0	11	0	359	0	13	383
Convertible	81	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	81
Crew cab	14	441	0	0	10	0	0	0	0	465
Estate	7,866	5	0	0	206	30	0	0	1	8,108
Excavator/digger	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	83	0	83
Fire engine	0	0	0	0	7	0	0	0	0	7
Fork lift	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	27	0	28
Hatchback	30,336	13	0	0	900	3	0	0	0	31,252
Jeep	2,723	28	0	0	93	2	0	0	0	2,846
Loading shovel	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	174	0	175
MPV	28,388	27	0	0	1,981	45	0	0	9	30,450
Minibus	1	0	0	0	6	0	16	0	3	26
Moped	0	0	0	69	0	0	0	0	0	69
Motor caravan	9	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	224	236
Motor cycle	0	0	0	2,684	2	0	0	0	0	2,686
Pick up	62	818	0	0	77	0	0	0	0	957
Recovery vehicle	0	4	0	0	0	0	0	16	0	20
Refuse collector	0	87	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	87
Rigid	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3
Saloon	11,202	0	0	0	520	45	0	0	1	11,768
Scooter	0	0	0	86	0	0	0	0	0	86
Sports/Coupe (non convertible)	261	0	0	0	6	0	0	0	0	267
Station wagon/jeep	19,141	8	0	0	1,220	34	0	0	0	20,403
Telescopic handler	0	0	77	0	0	0	0	170	0	247
Van	1,043	18,973	0	0	146	0	0	2	0	20,164
Other	221	1,596	76	32	204	3	0	89	122	2,343
Total	101,349	23,655	2,368	2,871	5,534	162	375	561	373	137,248

Table 6: Seasonally adjusted number of vehicles licensed for the first time classified by taxation class
Taxation class	December 2021	November 2022	December 2022	Monthly % change
New vehicles
New private cars	8,652	9,508	9,346	-2%
New goods vehicles	2,182	2,436	2,647	9%
New tractors	231	205	154	-25%
New motor cycles	205	227	208	-8%
New exempt vehicles	272	571	656	15%
New other	133	136	152	12%
Total new vehicles	11,675	13,083	13,163	1%

Used (imported) vehicles
Used private cars	4,130	3,709	3,657	-1%
Used goods vehicles	620	738	648	-12%
Used tractors	225	220	197	-10%
Used motorcycles	250	266	258	-3%
Used other vehicles	441	431	425	-1%
Total used vehicles	5,666	5,364	5,185	-3%

Total all vehicles	17,341	18,447	18,348	-1%

Vehicles licensed for the first time December and Year 2022