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Vehicles licensed for the first time July 2023

New petrol cars licensed for the first time up 40% in first seven months of 2023

Online ISSN: 2009-5678

CSO statistical release, 09 August 2023, 11am

Key Findings

The number of new cars licensed in July 2023 increased by 3,028 vehicles (20%) compared with July 2022.
In the first seven months of 2023, 18% of all new cars licensed for the first time were electric compared with 13% in the same period in 2022.
Plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV) new cars licensed in the first seven months of 2023 rose by 25% compared with same period in 2022.
Slightly over one-fifth (22%) of new private cars licensed in the first seven 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 seven months of 2023 increased by 5% compared with the same period in 2022 (28,800 versus 27,372).
There were 9,506 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in the first seven months of 2023, compared with 10,032 in first seven months of 2022, a fall of 5%.
Toyota (3,009) was the most popular make of new private car licensed in July 2023.

Statistician's Comment

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (09 August 2023) published Vehicles licensed for the first time for July 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 (66%) from 10,105 in the first seven months of 2022 to 16,766 between January and July 2023. Over those same months of 2023, 31,155 new cars licensed were petrol cars compared with 22,317 in the same seven-month period in 2022, an increase of 40%. At the same time, new diesel cars licensed have decreased by 6% in the same period.

Used Private Cars

There were 9,506 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in the first seven months of 2023, compared with 10,032 in the same seven-month period of 2022, a fall of 5%.

The total number of used vehicles licensed in the first seven months of 2023 was up 6% compared with the same period in 2022 (See Table 1).

Most Popular Car Brands

Data also shows that Toyota (3,009) was the most popular make of new private car licensed in July 2023, followed by Hyundai (2,255), Volkswagen (1,671), Kia (1,325) and Skoda (1,197).

Together, these five makes represent just over a half (52%) of all new private cars licensed in July 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
	July				January - July
	2022	2023	Change		2022	2023	Change
New private cars	15,078	18,106	3,028	20%	77,346	91,272	13,926	18%
New goods vehicles	1,800	2,637	837	47%	14,322	18,237	3,915	27%
New other vehicles	1,626	1,798	172	11%	8,358	9,290	932	11%
Total new vehicles	18,504	22,541	4,037	22%	100,026	118,799	18,773	19%

Used private cars	4,118	4,348	230	6%	27,372	28,800	1,428	5%
Used goods vehicles	600	750	150	25%	4,739	5,418	679	14%
Used other vehicles	889	1,006	117	13%	6,613	6,830	217	3%
Total used vehicles	5,607	6,104	497	9%	38,724	41,048	2,324	6%

Open in Excel: Vehicles licensed for the first time July 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 July 2019 to July 2023

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

	Most popular makes of new cars, July 2023
Toyota	17
Hyundai	12
Volkswagen	9
Kia	7
Skoda	7
Other	48

	Most popular makes of new cars, July 2022
Toyota	17
Hyundai	12
Volkswagen	14
Kia	7
Skoda	7
Other	42

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

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

Table 4 Number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time by make, July 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	41
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

Figure 6 shows the share of new electric cars licensed from February 2023 to July 2023. In July 2023, electric cars were 17% 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	July			January - July
Taxation Class	2021	2022	2023	2021	2022	2023
New vehicles
New Private Cars	20,232	15,078	18,106	80,055	77,346	91,272
New Goods Vehicles	2,707	1,800	2,637	17,712	14,322	18,237
New Tractors	243	254	242	1,708	1,662	1,680
New Motor Cycles	344	369	438	1,452	1,994	2,061
New Exempt Vehicles	952	832	933	4,081	3,707	4,317
New Other	164	171	185	1,013	995	1,232
Total New Vehicles	24,642	18,504	22,541	106,021	100,026	118,799

Used (imported) vehicles
Used private cars	5,590	4,118	4,348	45,552	27,372	28,800
Used goods vehicles	819	600	750	6,800	4,739	5,418
Used tractors	245	184	259	2,262	1,430	1,644
Used motorcycles	292	257	279	2,299	1,926	1,857
Used other vehicles	561	448	468	4,089	3,257	3,329
Total used vehicles	7,507	5,607	6,104	61,002	38,724	41,048

Total all vehicles	32,149	24,111	28,645	167,023	138,750	159,847

Table 3A: Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO₂ emission band and fuel type, July 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	2,054	428	3,065	3,050	87	1,409	0	10,093
B	3,214	2,284	0	817	127	0	0	6,442
C	381	848	0	6	1	0	0	1,236
D	33	109	0	5	3	0	0	150
E	9	9	0	0	3	0	0	21
F	5	30	0	1	0	0	0	36
G	9	5	0	0	0	0	0	14
Not available	4	109	0	1	0	0	0	114
Total	5,709	3,822	3,065	3,880	221	1,409	0	18,106

Table 3B: Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO₂ emission band and fuel type, January-July 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	10,260	2,132	16,766	10,277	305	7,335	3	47,078
B	18,441	11,494	0	4,070	1,551	0	0	35,556
C	2,109	4,486	0	72	13	3	0	6,683
D	154	676	0	33	7	1	0	871
E	63	89	0	2	15	0	0	169
F	28	186	0	5	0	0	0	219
G	77	62	0	0	0	0	0	139
Not available	23	528	0	6	0	0	0	557
Total	31,155	19,653	16,766	14,465	1,891	7,339	3	91,272

Table 4: Number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time by make, July 2023
Make	July			January - July
Make	New	Used (imported)	Total	New	Used (imported)	Total
Audi	861	458	1,319	4,065	2,908	6,973
BMW	493	390	883	3,387	2,792	6,179
Citroen	139	66	205	1,053	340	1,393
Dacia	488	10	498	3,871	81	3,952
Fiat	135	36	171	443	229	672
Ford	727	228	955	4,591	1,659	6,250
Honda	22	325	347	170	1,832	2,002
Hyundai	2,255	99	2,354	8,820	725	9,545
Jaguar	7	21	28	63	140	203
Kia	1,325	59	1,384	6,592	432	7,024
Land Rover	107	56	163	479	414	893
Lexus	110	27	137	446	201	647
Mazda	214	82	296	959	576	1,535
Mercedes Benz	337	239	576	2,243	1,406	3,649
Mini	76	27	103	513	184	697
Mitsubishi	1	41	42	1	373	374
Nissan	860	313	1,173	3,407	2,325	5,732
Opel	365	- 0	365	2,420	4	2,424
Peugeot	718	124	842	3,471	858	4,329
Renault	739	62	801	3,117	479	3,596
Seat	334	27	361	1,951	261	2,212
Skoda	1,197	97	1,294	7,132	623	7,755
Ssangyong	3	1	4	58	2	60
Subaru	3	7	10	32	32	64
Suzuki	270	67	337	1,528	460	1,988
Tesla	209	9	218	2,140	47	2,187
Toyota	3,009	398	3,407	13,477	2,567	16,044
Vauxhall	0	73	73	1	577	578
Volkswagen	1,671	860	2,531	9,815	5,336	15,151
Volvo	301	87	388	1,716	552	2,268
Other	1,130	59	1,189	3,311	385	3,696
Total	18,106	4,348	22,454	91,272	28,800	120,072
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	July 2022	June 2023	July 2023	Monthly % change
New vehicles
New private cars	8,088	11,008	10,006	-9%
New goods vehicles	1,816	2,723	2,722	0%
New tractors	208	190	205	8%
New motor cycles	238	272	280	3%
New exempt vehicles	450	610	527	-14%
New other	138	137	139	1%
Total new vehicles	10,938	14,940	13,879	-7%

Used (imported) vehicles
Used private cars	4,067	4,050	4,216	4%
Used goods vehicles	632	783	794	1%
Used tractors	194	193	274	42%
Used motorcycles	241	237	262	11%
Used other vehicles	445	449	464	3%
Total used vehicles	5,579	5,712	6,010	5%

Total all vehicles	16,517	20,652	19,889	-4%

Vehicles licensed for the first time July 2023