In the first half of 2024, 14% of all new cars licensed for the first time were electric compared with 19% in the same period in 2023.
Almost a quarter (23%) of new private cars licensed in the first six months of 2024 were diesel compared with 22% in the same period in 2023.
The number of petrol & electric hybrid cars licensed in the first half of 2024 increased by 43% compared with the same period in 2023 (15,182 versus 10,585).
The number of used cars licensed in the first six months of 2024 increased by 27% compared with the same period in 2023 (31,093 versus 24,452).
There were 8,351 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in the first six months of 2024, compared with 8,258 in first six months of 2023, an increase of 1%.
Volkswagen (442) was the most popular make of new private car licensed in June 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 | |||||||||
| June | January - June | ||||||||
| 2023 | 2024 | Change | 2023 | 2024 | Change | ||||
| New private cars | 5,584 | 3,499 | -2,085 | -37% | 73,166 | 75,719 | 2,553 | 3% | |
| New goods vehicles | 2,404 | 2,233 | -171 | -7% | 15,600 | 18,257 | 2,657 | 17% | |
| New other vehicles | 906 | 725 | -181 | -20% | 7,492 | 7,846 | 354 | 5% | |
| Total new vehicles | 8,894 | 6,457 | -2,437 | -27% | 96,258 | 101,822 | 5,564 | 6% | |
| Used private cars | 4,107 | 5,228 | 1,121 | 27% | 24,452 | 31,093 | 6,641 | 27% | |
| Used goods vehicles | 806 | 790 | -16 | -2% | 4,668 | 5,328 | 660 | 14% | |
| Used other vehicles | 1,001 | 1,048 | 47 | 5% | 5,824 | 6,002 | 178 | 3% | |
| Total used vehicles | 5,914 | 7,066 | 1,152 | 19% | 34,944 | 42,423 | 7,479 | 21% | |
Figure 1 shows data on the number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time in June 2020 to June 2024
| Most popular makes of new cars, June 2024 | |
| Volkswagen | 13 |
| Tesla | 12 |
| Toyota | 11 |
| Skoda | 6 |
| Renault | 6 |
| Other | 53 |
| Most popular makes of new cars, June 2023 | |
| Volkswagen | 14 |
| Tesla | 15 |
| Toyota | 12 |
| Skoda | 6 |
| Renault | 4 |
| Other | 49 |
| X-axis label | Unadjusted data | Adjusted data | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| June 2019 | 3858 | 10066 | 9658 |
| July 2019 | 18741 | 8871 | 9115 |
| August 2019 | 7202 | 8679 | 8541 |
| September 2019 | 4104 | 7614 | 8126 |
| October 2019 | 3214 | 7680 | 7968 |
| November 2019 | 1676 | 8036 | 8017 |
| December 2019 | 729 | 8099 | 8155 |
| January 2020 | 20665 | 8761 | 8270 |
| February 2020 | 13263 | 8644 | 8281 |
| March 2020 | 10239 | 6897 | 8195 |
| April 2020 | 1338 | 1064 | 1129 |
| May 2020 | 1490 | 1778 | 2674 |
| June 2020 | 2189 | 5062 | 5029 |
| July 2020 | 15329 | 7431 | 7520 |
| August 2020 | 7360 | 8643 | 8854 |
| September 2020 | 5747 | 9117 | 9132 |
| October 2020 | 4189 | 9543 | 9234 |
| November 2020 | 1468 | 6404 | 9128 |
| December 2020 | 1032 | 10651 | 8857 |
| January 2021 | 16948 | 8286 | 8514 |
| February 2021 | 11672 | 7739 | 8261 |
| March 2021 | 10672 | 6547 | 8209 |
| April 2021 | 8214 | 6928 | 8390 |
| May 2021 | 7337 | 8644 | 8712 |
| June 2021 | 4980 | 10926 | 9033 |
| July 2021 | 20232 | 10553 | 9230 |
| August 2021 | 8563 | 9080 | 9236 |
| September 2021 | 6354 | 9396 | 9100 |
| October 2021 | 3882 | 8580 | 8900 |
| November 2021 | 2167 | 8748 | 8700 |
| December 2021 | 832 | 8302 | 8529 |
| January 2022 | 15814 | 8182 | 8391 |
| February 2022 | 13643 | 9254 | 8270 |
| March 2022 | 11872 | 7871 | 8157 |
| April 2022 | 10045 | 8017 | 8065 |
| May 2022 | 7120 | 7774 | 8038 |
| June 2022 | 3774 | 8304 | 8146 |
| July 2022 | 15078 | 8238 | 8388 |
| August 2022 | 8942 | 8545 | 8695 |
| September 2022 | 7315 | 10494 | 8946 |
| October 2022 | 4527 | 9724 | 9078 |
| November 2022 | 2353 | 9380 | 9120 |
| December 2022 | 866 | 8758 | 9123 |
| January 2023 | 16787 | 8699 | 9173 |
| February 2023 | 13284 | 9148 | 9310 |
| March 2023 | 15782 | 10062 | 9556 |
| April 2023 | 11277 | 9611 | 9869 |
| May 2023 | 10452 | 10268 | 10151 |
| June 2023 | 5584 | 12529 | 10284 |
| July 2023 | 18106 | 10114 | 10266 |
| August 2023 | 11328 | 10594 | 10185 |
| September 2023 | 6882 | 10009 | 10100 |
| October 2023 | 4587 | 9624 | 10029 |
| November 2023 | 2291 | 9564 | 9986 |
| December 2023 | 1064 | 10644 | 10004 |
| January 2024 | 20861 | 10271 | 10052 |
| February 2024 | 13979 | 9497 | 10047 |
| March 2024 | 14916 | 9813 | 9913 |
| April 2024 | 12409 | 10124 | |
| May 2024 | 10055 | 9630 | |
| June 2024 | 3499 | 8561 |
| 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 January 2024 to June 2024. In June 2024, electric cars were 25% 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 | 5 | 0 |
| 2019 | 40 | 47 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 0 |
| 2020 | 37 | 43 | 5 | 3 | 12 | 0 |
| 2021 | 32 | 34 | 8 | 7 | 18 | 0 |
| 2022 | 30 | 27 | 15 | 7 | 20 | 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 |
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 (11 July 2024) published Vehicles licensed for the first time for June 2024.
Commenting on the data, Damien Lenihan, Statistician in the Transport Section of the CSO, said: “Today’s figures from the CSO show growth in the licensing of petrol & electric hybrid vehicles. The number of new petrol & electric hybrid cars licensed increased by 43% from 10,585 in the first half of 2023 to 15,182 in the same period of 2024. In the same two periods, electric cars licensed for the first time decreased by 25% (13,701 vs 10,344). In the first six months of 2024, 25,137 new cars licensed were petrol compared with 25,446 in the same period in 2023, a fall of 1%. Comparing the same six-month periods in 2023 and 2024, the number of new diesel cars licensed has risen by 10%, (15,831 vs 17,477).
Used Private Cars
There were 8,351 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in the first six months of 2024, compared with 8,258 in the same period of 2023, an increase of 1%.
The total number of used vehicles licensed in the first six months of 2024 was up 21% compared with the same period in 2023 (See Table 1).
Most Popular Car Brands
Data also shows that Volkswagen (442) was the most popular make of new private car licensed in June 2024, followed by Tesla (428), Toyota (375), Skoda (212), and Renault (202). Together, these five makes represented almost half (47%) of all new private cars licensed in June 2024 (See Table 4).
The most popular brand of new electric car licensed in June 2024 was Tesla Model 3 (249), followed by Tesla Model Y (179), and Volkswagen ID.4 (76) (See TEM28 for further information).”