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Vehicles licensed for the first time January 2023

Number of new electric cars licensed for the first time in January 2023 increased by 40% compared with January 2022

Online ISSN: 2009-5678

CSO statistical release, 08 February 2023, 11am

Key Findings

The number of new cars licensed in January 2023 rose by 973 vehicles (6%) compared with January 2022.
In January 2023, 15% of all new cars licensed for the first time were electric compared with 11% in January 2022.
One fifth of new private cars licensed in January 2023 were diesel which was the same as in January 2022.
The number of used cars licensed in January 2023 decreased by 9% compared with January 2022 (3,362 versus 3,686).
There were 1,280 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in January 2023, compared with 1,584 in January 2022, a fall of 19%.
Toyota (3,293) was the most popular make of new private cars licensed in January 2023.

Statistician's Comment

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (08 February 2023) published Vehicles licensed for the first time for January 2023.

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 and plug-in hybrid vehicles licensed in Ireland. The number of new electric cars licensed has increased by 40% from 1,813 in January 2022 to 2,531 in January 2023. In January 2023, 5,819 new cars licensed were petrol cars compared with 4,342 in January 2022.

Used Private Cars

There were 3,362 used (imported) private cars licensed in January 2023 compared with 3,686 in January 2022. There were 1,280 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in January 2023, compared with 1,584 in January 2022, a fall of 19%. The total number of used vehicles licensed in January 2023 was down 7% compared with January 2022. (See table 1)

Most Popular Car Brands

Data also shows that Toyota (3,293) was the most popular make of new private car licensed in January 2023, followed by Hyundai (2,357), Volkswagen (1,499), Skoda (1,276) and Kia (1,153). Together, these five makes represent more than half (57%) of all new private cars licensed in January 2023. (See table 4)”

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 January 2019 to 2023

Table 1: Number of vehicles licensed for the first time
	January
	2022	2023	Change
New private cars	15,814	16,787	973	6%
New goods vehicles	1,728	2,192	464	27%
Other new vehicles	1,164	1,324	160	14%
Total new vehicles	18,706	20,303	1,597	9%

Used private cars	3,686	3,362	-324	-9%
Used goods vehicles	640	634	-6	-1%
Other used vehicles	747	704	-43	-6%
Total used vehicles	5,073	4,700	-373	-7%

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

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, January 2023
Toyota	20
Hyundai	14
Volkswagen	9
Skoda	8
Kia	6.9
Other	43

	Most popular makes of new cars, January 2022
Toyota	23
Hyundai	13
Volkswagen	7
Skoda	6
Kia	7
Other	44

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

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

X-axis label	Unadjusted data	Adjusted data	Trend
January 2018	25813	10322	9958
February 2018	16501	10404	10065
March 2018	16088	10020	10123
April 2018	11557	9639	10113
May 2018	9362	10132	10035
June 2018	3716	9965	9911
July 2018	20743	10458	9733
August 2018	7681	9447	9493
September 2018	4397	8888	9202
October 2018	2874	7722	8927
November 2018	1647	8884	8782
December 2018	778	10628	8827
January 2019	22279	9044	9053
February 2019	14178	9126	9389
March 2019	14404	9918	9717
April 2019	13794	10431	9943
May 2019	9126	9832	9985
June 2019	3858	10160	9800
July 2019	18741	9273	9446
August 2019	7202	9024	9047
September 2019	4104	7505	8707
October 2019	3214	8139	8489
November 2019	1676	8304	8383
December 2019	729	8590	8375
January 2020	20665	8643	8447
February 2020	13263	8426	8552
March 2020	10239	6873	7032
April 2020	1338	1062	1067
May 2020	1490	1694	2696
June 2020	2189	5244	5241
July 2020	15329	7779	7875
August 2020	7360	9031	9197
September 2020	5747	9104	9522
October 2020	4189	10066	9917
November 2020	1468	6578	10295
December 2020	1032	10923	10565
January 2021	16948	7817	7632
February 2021	11672	7384	7636
March 2021	10672	6809	7625
April 2021	8214	6896	7655
May 2021	7337	8597	7737
June 2021	4980	11528	7848
July 2021	20232	10832	7962
August 2021	8563	9600	8034
September 2021	6354	9203	8055
October 2021	3882	8698	8043
November 2021	2167	8792	8018
December 2021	832	8403	7992
January 2022	15814	7811	7980
February 2022	13643	8395	7990
March 2022	11872	8168	8028
April 2022	10045	8222	8135
May 2022	7120	8171	8338
June 2022	3774	8745	8629
July 2022	15078	8314	8955
August 2022	8942	9350	9234
September 2022	7315	9802	9390
October 2022	4527	9617	9371
November 2022	2353	9150
December 2022	866	8916
January 2023	16787	8364

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

X-axis label	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023 January
<1 year old	2	2	1	1	0
1-2 years old	18	18	11	7	6
3-5 years old	50	56	56	36	32
6-9 years old	26	20	25	42	42
Over 10 years old	5	5	7	14	21

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	January
Taxation Class	2021	2022	2023
New vehicles
New Private Cars	16,948	15,814	16,787
New Goods Vehicles	1,529	1,728	2,192
New Tractors	258	252	296
New Motor Cycles	136	274	282
New Exempt Vehicles	575	518	602
New Other	72	120	144
Total New Vehicles	19,518	18,706	20,303

Used (imported) vehicles
Used private cars	8,126	3,686	3,362
Used goods vehicles	960	640	634
Used tractors	367	193	193
Used motorcycles	301	192	153
Used other vehicles	536	362	358
Total used vehicles	10,290	5,073	4,700

Total all vehicles	29,808	23,779	25,003

Table 4: Number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time by make, January 2023
Make	January
Make	New	Used (imported)	Total
Audi	740	296	1,036
BMW	580	295	875
Citroen	192	43	235
Dacia	426	6	432
Fiat	30	31	61
Ford	1,019	228	1,247
Honda	46	184	230
Hyundai	2,357	86	2,443
Jaguar	18	19	37
Kia	1,153	55	1,208
Land Rover	90	53	143
Lexus	78	26	104
Mazda	177	73	250
Mercedes Benz	601	157	758
Mini	108	21	129
Mitsubishi	0	39	39
Nissan	570	324	894
Opel	267	0	267
Peugeot	437	105	542
Renault	500	58	558
Seat	300	29	329
Skoda	1,276	80	1,356
Ssangyong	3	0	3
Subaru	5	0	5
Suzuki	423	49	472
Tesla	2	5	7
Toyota	3,293	313	3,606
Vauxhall	0	100	100
Volkswagen	1,499	578	2,077
Volvo	250	79	329
Other	347	30	377
Total	16,787	3,362	20,149
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	January 2022	December 2022	January 2023	Monthly % change
New vehicles
New private cars	7,811	8,916	8,364	-6%
New goods vehicles	1,544	2,532	2,026	-20%
New tractors	192	157	211	34%
New motor cycles	240	212	238	12%
New exempt vehicles	417	687	480	-30%
New other	121	152	141	-7%
Total new vehicles	10,325	12,656	11,460	-9%

Used (imported) vehicles
Used private cars	4,047	3,652	3,572	-2%
Used goods vehicles	697	663	670	1%
Used tractors	193	196	188	-4%
Used motorcycles	262	252	203	-19%
Used other vehicles	455	426	432	1%
Total used vehicles	5,654	5,189	5,065	-2%

Total all vehicles	15,979	17,845	16,525	-7%

Table 6: Number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time
Private cars	2019	2020	2021	2022	Jan 2023
New	113,305	84,309	101,853	101,349	16,787
Used (imported)	108,895	78,541	68,042	46,567	3,362
Total	222,200	162,850	169,895	147,916	20,149
% used (imported)	49%	48%	40%	31%	17%

Vehicles licensed for the first time January 2023