The number of new cars licensed in February 2024 increased by 695 vehicles (5%) compared with February 2023.
In the first two months of 2024, 14% of all new cars licensed for the first time were electric, compared with 15% in the same period in 2023, while petrol cars accounted for 29%.
Slightly over one-fifth (22%) of new private cars licensed in the first two months of 2024 were diesel which was the same as that recorded in the same period in 2023.
The number of used cars licensed in the first two months of 2024 increased by 31% compared with the same period in 2023 (9,594 versus 7,348).
There were 2,664 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in the first two months of 2024, compared with 2,788 in first two months of 2023, a fall of 4%.
Toyota (2,191) was the most popular make of new private car licensed in February 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 | |||||||||
| February | January - February | ||||||||
| 2023 | 2024 | Change | 2023 | 2024 | Change | ||||
| New private cars | 13,284 | 13,979 | 695 | 5% | 30,071 | 34,840 | 4,769 | 16% | |
| New goods vehicles | 2,659 | 3,257 | 598 | 22% | 4,851 | 5,936 | 1,085 | 22% | |
| New other vehicles | 1,296 | 1,477 | 181 | 14% | 2,620 | 2,812 | 192 | 7% | |
| Total new vehicles | 17,239 | 18,713 | 1,474 | 9% | 37,542 | 43,588 | 6,046 | 16% | |
| Used private cars | 3,986 | 4,994 | 1,008 | 25% | 7,348 | 9,594 | 2,246 | 31% | |
| Used goods vehicles | 684 | 846 | 162 | 24% | 1,318 | 1,603 | 285 | 22% | |
| Used other vehicles | 867 | 865 | -2 | 0% | 1,571 | 1,631 | 60 | 4% | |
| Total used vehicles | 5,537 | 6,705 | 1,168 | 21% | 10,237 | 12,828 | 2,591 | 25% | |
Figure 1 shows data on the number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time in February 2020 to February 2024
| Most popular makes of new cars, February 2024 | |
| Toyota | 16 |
| Skoda | 10 |
| Hyundai | 9 |
| Volkswagen | 9 |
| Kia | 7 |
| Other | 49 |
| Most popular makes of new cars, February 2023 | |
| Toyota | 14 |
| Skoda | 7 |
| Hyundai | 13 |
| Volkswagen | 9 |
| Kia | 8 |
| Other | 49 |
| X-axis label | Unadjusted data | Adjusted data | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| February 2019 | 14178 | 8979 | 9512 |
| March 2019 | 14404 | 9989 | 9784 |
| April 2019 | 13794 | 10571 | 9977 |
| May 2019 | 9126 | 9727 | 10004 |
| June 2019 | 3858 | 10215 | 9825 |
| July 2019 | 18741 | 9359 | 9469 |
| August 2019 | 7202 | 9035 | 9027 |
| September 2019 | 4104 | 7573 | 8639 |
| October 2019 | 3214 | 8060 | 8389 |
| November 2019 | 1676 | 8310 | 8266 |
| December 2019 | 729 | 8115 | 8225 |
| January 2020 | 20665 | 8450 | 8218 |
| February 2020 | 13263 | 8448 | 8175 |
| March 2020 | 10239 | 6810 | 8083 |
| April 2020 | 1338 | 1074 | 1091 |
| May 2020 | 1490 | 1691 | 2718 |
| June 2020 | 2189 | 5230 | 5241 |
| July 2020 | 15329 | 7846 | 7869 |
| August 2020 | 7360 | 9018 | 9211 |
| September 2020 | 5747 | 9355 | 9544 |
| October 2020 | 4189 | 10053 | 9927 |
| November 2020 | 1468 | 6653 | 10251 |
| December 2020 | 1032 | 10740 | 10458 |
| January 2021 | 16948 | 7708 | 7650 |
| February 2021 | 11672 | 7678 | 7640 |
| March 2021 | 10672 | 6518 | 7628 |
| April 2021 | 8214 | 7136 | 7671 |
| May 2021 | 7337 | 8230 | 7781 |
| June 2021 | 4980 | 11176 | 7940 |
| July 2021 | 20232 | 10989 | 8108 |
| August 2021 | 8563 | 9528 | 8226 |
| September 2021 | 6354 | 9682 | 8282 |
| October 2021 | 3882 | 8893 | 8276 |
| November 2021 | 2167 | 9037 | 8249 |
| December 2021 | 832 | 8359 | 8217 |
| January 2022 | 15814 | 7510 | 8161 |
| February 2022 | 13643 | 9247 | 8094 |
| March 2022 | 11872 | 7957 | 8019 |
| April 2022 | 10045 | 8399 | 7971 |
| May 2022 | 7120 | 7727 | 7993 |
| June 2022 | 3774 | 7998 | 8150 |
| July 2022 | 15078 | 8392 | 8424 |
| August 2022 | 8942 | 8742 | 8769 |
| September 2022 | 7315 | 10778 | 9074 |
| October 2022 | 4527 | 9891 | 9266 |
| November 2022 | 2353 | 9597 | 9347 |
| December 2022 | 866 | 8826 | 9359 |
| January 2023 | 16787 | 8127 | 9433 |
| February 2023 | 13284 | 9218 | 9621 |
| March 2023 | 15782 | 10144 | 9921 |
| April 2023 | 11277 | 10218 | 10265 |
| May 2023 | 10452 | 10631 | 10540 |
| June 2023 | 5584 | 11216 | 10626 |
| July 2023 | 18106 | 10078 | 10538 |
| August 2023 | 11328 | 10674 | 10359 |
| September 2023 | 6882 | 10057 | 10152 |
| October 2023 | 4587 | 9705 | 9993 |
| November 2023 | 2291 | 9620 | 9920 |
| December 2023 | 1064 | 10614 | |
| January 2024 | 20861 | 9879 | |
| February 2024 | 13979 | 9635 |
| 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 September 2023 to February 2024. In February 2024, electric cars were 15% 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 | 0 | |
| 2019 | 40 | 47 | 3 | 1 | 0 | |
| 2020 | 37 | 43 | 5 | 3 | 0 | |
| 2021 | 32 | 34 | 8 | 7 | 0 | |
| 2022 | 30 | 27 | 15 | 7 | 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 |
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (11 March 2024) published Vehicles licensed for the first time for February 2024.
Commenting on the data, Damien Lenihan, 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 7% from 4,583 in the first two months of 2023 to 4,896 in the first two months of 2024.
In the first two months of 2024, 10,121 new cars licensed were petrol cars compared with 10,525 in the same period in 2023, a decrease of 4%. New diesel cars licensed have risen by 20% in the same period. The number of Petrol & Electric hybrids combined with Diesel & Electric hybrids grew by 50% in the first two months of 2024, compared with the first two months of 2023 (9,016 versus 6,004).
Used Private Cars
There were 2,664 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in the first two months of 2024, compared with 2,788 in the first two months of 2023, a fall of 4%.
The total number of used vehicles licensed in the first two months of 2024 was up 25% compared with the same period in 2023 (See Table 1).
Most Popular Car Brands
Data also shows that Toyota (2,191) was the most popular make of new private car licensed in February 2024, followed by Skoda (1,368), Hyundai (1,282), Volkswagen (1,271), and Kia (1,020). Together, these five makes represented just over half (51%) of all new private cars licensed in February 2024 (See Table 4).
The most popular brand of new electric car licensed in February 2024 was Tesla Model 3 (223) followed by Volkswagen ID.4 (156), BYD Seal (140), and MG4 (107) (See TEM28 for further information).”