The total number of new private cars licensed in 2024 fell slightly in comparison with 2023 (116,683 vs 117,424).
The number of used (imported) cars licensed increased by 23% (61,838 vs 50,381) over the same period.
In 2024, 15% of all new cars licensed for the first time were electric compared with 19% in 2023 (17,191 vs 22,493).
The number of new hybrid cars licensed in 2024 rose by a quarter (25%) when compared with the same period in 2023 (25,270 vs 20,270). This has driven up the share of hybrids among new private cars from 17% to 22% in 2024.
The combined share of petrol and diesel cars among new private cars licensed year-to-date has remained relatively unchanged from 2023, reducing by 1% (54% compared with 55%).
Toyota was the most popular make of new private car licensed in 2024.
Registration and licensing figures may differ in a given month for a number of reasons, some of which are outlined below:
Figure 1 shows data on the number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time in December 2019 to December 2024
| Table 1 Number of vehicles licensed for the first time classified by taxation class | |||||||||
| Taxation Class | December | January - December | |||||||
| 2023 | 2024 | Change | 2023 | 2024 | Change | ||||
| New vehicles | |||||||||
| New Private Cars | 1,064 | 1,044 | -20 | -2% | 117,424 | 116,683 | -741 | -1% | |
| New Goods Vehicles | 888 | 632 | -256 | -29% | 29,038 | 30,802 | 1,764 | 6% | |
| New Tractors | 57 | 61 | 4 | 7% | 2,310 | 2,131 | -179 | -8% | |
| New Motor Cycles | 65 | 52 | -13 | -20% | 2,932 | 2,760 | -172 | -6% | |
| New Exempt Vehicles | 92 | 109 | 17 | 18% | 6,225 | 6,371 | 146 | 2% | |
| New Other | 100 | 97 | -3 | -3% | 1,849 | 2,348 | 499 | 27% | |
| Total New Vehicles | 2,266 | 1,995 | -271 | -12% | 159,778 | 161,095 | 1,317 | 1% | |
| Used (imported) vehicles | |||||||||
| Used private cars | 3,811 | 3,706 | -105 | -3% | 50,381 | 61,838 | 11,457 | 23% | |
| Used goods vehicles | 660 | 773 | 113 | 17% | 9,443 | 10,978 | 1,535 | 16% | |
| Used tractors | 150 | 152 | 2 | 1% | 2,510 | 2,566 | 56 | 2% | |
| Used motorcycles | 144 | 120 | -24 | -17% | 2,856 | 2,759 | -97 | -3% | |
| Used other vehicles | 336 | 381 | 45 | 13% | 5,645 | 6,498 | 853 | 15% | |
| Total used vehicles | 5,101 | 5,132 | 31 | 1% | 70,835 | 84,639 | 13,804 | 19% | |
| Total all vehicles | 7,367 | 7,127 | -240 | -3% | 230,613 | 245,734 | 15,121 | 7% | |
Figure 3 shows that in December 2024, 39% of all new private cars licensed were electric.
| Most popular makes of new cars, 2024 | |
| Toyota | 14 |
| Volkswagen | 11 |
| Skoda | 10 |
| Hyundai | 9 |
| Kia | 7 |
| Other | 49 |
| Most popular makes of new cars, 2023 | |
| Toyota | 13 |
| Volkswagen | 11 |
| Skoda | 8 |
| Hyundai | 9 |
| Kia | 7 |
| Other | 50 |
| Most popular make of new electric model cars, December 2024 | |
| Tesla Model Y | 14 |
| Mercedes Benz EQE | 4 |
| Other | 32 |
| Tesla Model 3 | 50 |
| Most popular make of new electric model cars, December 2023 | |
| Tesla Model Y | 45 |
| Tesla Model 3 | 12 |
| BMW iX | 5 |
| Other | 38 |
| X-axis label | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| <1 year old | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 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 | 42 |
| Over 10 years old | 5 | 7 | 14 | 19 | 23 |
| X-axis label | Unadjusted data | Adjusted data | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| December 2019 | 729 | 8148 | 8157 |
| January 2020 | 20665 | 8770 | 8266 |
| February 2020 | 13263 | 8615 | 8277 |
| March 2020 | 10239 | 6966 | 8199 |
| April 2020 | 1338 | 1063 | 1119 |
| May 2020 | 1490 | 1779 | 2663 |
| June 2020 | 2189 | 5081 | 5026 |
| July 2020 | 15329 | 7349 | 7528 |
| August 2020 | 7360 | 8677 | 8861 |
| September 2020 | 5747 | 9137 | 9129 |
| October 2020 | 4189 | 9555 | 9222 |
| November 2020 | 1468 | 6437 | 9114 |
| December 2020 | 1032 | 10662 | 8842 |
| January 2021 | 16948 | 8304 | 8495 |
| February 2021 | 11672 | 7730 | 8246 |
| March 2021 | 10672 | 6638 | 8221 |
| April 2021 | 8214 | 6946 | 8444 |
| May 2021 | 7337 | 8680 | 8811 |
| June 2021 | 4980 | 10986 | 9167 |
| July 2021 | 20232 | 10328 | 9378 |
| August 2021 | 8563 | 9110 | 9370 |
| September 2021 | 6354 | 9438 | 9202 |
| October 2021 | 3882 | 8613 | 8968 |
| November 2021 | 2167 | 8793 | 8747 |
| December 2021 | 832 | 8342 | 8574 |
| January 2022 | 15814 | 8223 | 8458 |
| February 2022 | 13643 | 9269 | 8357 |
| March 2022 | 11872 | 7932 | 8242 |
| April 2022 | 10045 | 8083 | 8128 |
| May 2022 | 7120 | 7828 | 8066 |
| June 2022 | 3774 | 8402 | 8143 |
| July 2022 | 15078 | 8000 | 8368 |
| August 2022 | 8942 | 8566 | 8678 |
| September 2022 | 7315 | 10552 | 8943 |
| October 2022 | 4527 | 9876 | 9092 |
| November 2022 | 2353 | 9428 | 9147 |
| December 2022 | 866 | 8737 | 9158 |
| January 2023 | 16787 | 8718 | 9220 |
| February 2023 | 13284 | 9169 | 9370 |
| March 2023 | 15782 | 10156 | 9623 |
| April 2023 | 11277 | 9687 | 9917 |
| May 2023 | 10452 | 10404 | 10166 |
| June 2023 | 5584 | 12787 | 10273 |
| July 2023 | 18106 | 9778 | 10253 |
| August 2023 | 11328 | 10551 | 10189 |
| September 2023 | 6882 | 10073 | 10131 |
| October 2023 | 4587 | 9972 | 10080 |
| November 2023 | 2291 | 9653 | 10038 |
| December 2023 | 1064 | 10451 | 10037 |
| January 2024 | 20861 | 10272 | 10035 |
| February 2024 | 13979 | 9499 | 10001 |
| March 2024 | 14916 | 9883 | 9915 |
| April 2024 | 12409 | 10206 | 9761 |
| May 2024 | 10055 | 9783 | 9558 |
| June 2024 | 3499 | 8811 | 9331 |
| July 2024 | 18512 | 9220 | 9119 |
| August 2024 | 9280 | 9006 | 8967 |
| September 2024 | 6110 | 9002 | 8918 |
| October 2024 | 3994 | 8601 | |
| November 2024 | 2024 | 9064 | |
| December 2024 | 1044 | 9519 |
The share of electric cars in the total number of new cars licensed grew from 3% in 2019 to 15% in 2024.
At the same time, the share of diesel cars is falling. In 2019, 47% of all new cars licensed were diesel cars compared with 23% in 2024. See figure 10 and figure 11.
| X-axis label | Petrol | Diesel | Electric | PHEV | Hybrid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 40 | 47 | 3 | 1 | 8 |
| 2020 | 37 | 43 | 5 | 3 | 12 |
| 2021 | 32 | 34 | 8 | 7 | 18 |
| 2022 | 30 | 27 | 15 | 7 | 20 |
| 2023 | 33 | 22 | 19 | 8 | 17 |
| 2024 | 31 | 23 | 15 | 9 | 22 |
| X-axis label | Number of new electric private cars | Percentage of all new private cars |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 3443 | 3 |
| 2020 | 3940 | 5 |
| 2021 | 8554 | 8 |
| 2022 | 15462 | 15 |
| 2023 | 22493 | 19 |
| 2024 | 17191 | 15 |
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 (14 January 2025) published Vehicles licensed for the first time for December and Year 2024.
Commenting on the data, Damien Lenihan, Statistician in the Transport Section of the CSO, said: “Today’s figures from the CSO show a 24% decrease in the number of electric cars licensed for the first time in 2024 (17,191) when compared with 2023 (22,493). The number of new hybrid cars licensed increased by 25% from 20,270 in 2023 to 25,270 in 2024.
In 2024, 36,433 new cars licensed were petrol compared with 38,746 in the same period of 2023, a fall of 6%. Comparing 2023 and 2024, the number of new diesel cars licensed rose by 3% (25,938 vs 26,728).
Used Private Cars
The total number of used private cars licensed in 2024 was up 23% compared with 2023 (See Table 1).
There were 28,148 used (imported) petrol private cars licensed in 2024, compared with 22,515 in 2023, an increase of 25%. There were 7,698 used (imported) plug-in hybrid electric private cars licensed in 2024, up 87% on the total of 4,111 licensed in 2023.
Most Popular Car Brands
Data also shows that Toyota (16,486) was the most popular make of new private car licensed in 2024, followed by Volkswagen (13,314), Skoda (11,385), Hyundai (10,721) , and Kia (8,523). Together, these five makes represented 52% of all new private cars licensed in 2024 (See Table 4).
The most popular brand of new electric car licensed in December 2024 was Tesla Model 3 (202), followed by Tesla Model Y (57), and Mercedes Benz EQE (17) (See TEM28 for further information).”