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Vehicles licensed for the first time May 2023

New electric cars licensed for the first time up 52% compared with the same period in 2022

Online ISSN: 2009-5678

CSO statistical publication, 09 June 2023, 11am

Key Findings

The number of new cars licensed in May 2023 increased by 3,332 vehicles (47%) compared with May 2022.
In the first five 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 five months of 2023 rose by 21% compared with same period in 2022.
Over a quarter (26%) of the new cars licensed in the first five months of the year were PHEV or EV, compared to just over one-fifth (22%) diesel and 35% petrol. The proportion of new diesel cars licensed is down from 26% in the same period in 2022 and from 47% in 2019.
The number of used cars licensed in the first five months of 2023 increased by 5% compared with the same period in 2022 (20,345 versus 19,310).
There were 7,087 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in the first five months of 2023, compared with 7,307 in first five months of 2022, a fall of 3%.
Volkswagen (1,576) was the most popular make of new private cars licensed in May 2023.

Statistician's Comment

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (09 June 2023) published Vehicles licensed for the first time for May 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 52% from 7,825 in the first five months of 2022 to 11,918 in the first five months of 2023. In the first five months of 2023, 23,944 new cars licensed were petrol cars compared with 16,227 in the same period in 2022, an increase of 48%. At the same time, new diesel cars licensed have decreased by 5% in the same period.

Used private cars

There were 7,087 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in the first five months of 2023, compared with 7,307 in the first five months of 2022, a fall of 3%.

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

Most popular car brands

Data also shows that Volkswagen (1,576) was the most popular make of new private car licensed in May 2023, followed by Toyota (1,344), Skoda (761), Kia (748) and Dacia (563). Together, these five makes represent just under a half (48%) of all new private cars licensed in May 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
	May				January - May
	2022	2023	Change		2022	2023	Change
New private cars	7,120	10,452	3,332	47%	58,494	67,582	9,088	16%
New goods vehicles	2,212	3,087	875	40%	10,918	13,196	2,278	21%
New other vehicles	1,136	1,214	78	7%	6,018	6,586	568	9%
Total new vehicles	10,468	14,753	4,285	41%	75,430	87,364	11,934	16%

Used private cars	4,023	4,323	300	7%	19,310	20,345	1,035	5%
Used goods vehicles	709	900	191	27%	3,462	3,862	400	12%
Used other vehicles	1,176	1,155	-21	-2%	4,693	4,823	130	3%
Total used vehicles	5,908	6,378	470	8%	27,465	29,030	1,565	6%

Open in Excel: Vehicles licensed for the first time May 2023 Table 1 (XLS 11KB)

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 April 2019 to April 2023

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

	Most popular makes of new cars, March 2023
Volkswagen	15
Toyota	13
Skoda	7
Kia	7
Dacia	5
Other	52

	Most popular makes of new cars, May 2022
Volkswagen	13
Toyota	15
Skoda	7
Kia	6
Dacia	3
Other	57

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

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

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

X-axis label	Unadjusted data	Adjusted data	Trend
May 2018	9362	10136	10033
June 2018	3716	9938	9904
July 2018	20743	10461	9722
August 2018	7681	9437	9485
September 2018	4397	8904	9204
October 2018	2874	7726	8943
November 2018	1647	8886	8812
December 2018	778	10240	8860
January 2019	22279	9057	9076
February 2019	14178	9115	9390
March 2019	14404	9924	9694
April 2019	13794	10552	9902
May 2019	9126	9727	9939
June 2019	3858	10155	9768
July 2019	18741	9266	9439
August 2019	7202	9036	9059
September 2019	4104	7513	8725
October 2019	3214	8176	8494
November 2019	1676	8320	8372
December 2019	729	8507	8356
January 2020	20665	8552	8427
February 2020	13263	8436	8537
March 2020	10239	6905	7052
April 2020	1338	1084	1067
May 2020	1490	1664	2694
June 2020	2189	5230	5233
July 2020	15329	7801	7866
August 2020	7360	9025	9195
September 2020	5747	9102	9534
October 2020	4189	10094	9951
November 2020	1468	6628	10331
December 2020	1032	11017	10580
January 2021	16948	7627	7615
February 2021	11672	7573	7603
March 2021	10672	6796	7584
April 2021	8214	7174	7616
May 2021	7337	8287	7706
June 2021	4980	11479	7823
July 2021	20232	10880	7936
August 2021	8563	9558	8006
September 2021	6354	9143	8055
October 2021	3882	8712	8100
November 2021	2167	8893	8169
December 2021	832	8586	8245
January 2022	15814	7460	8299
February 2022	13643	8982	8311
March 2022	11872	8132	8277
April 2022	10045	8581	8256
May 2022	7120	7799	8317
June 2022	3774	8681	8491
July 2022	15078	8349	8751
August 2022	8942	9209	9036
September 2022	7315	9664	9246
October 2022	4527	9588	9329
November 2022	2353	9252	9318
December 2022	866	9191	9288
January 2023	16787	7883	9353
February 2023	13284	9040	9566
March 2023	15782	10262
April 2023	11277	10368
May 2023	10452	11044

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	30
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 December 2022 to May 2023. In May 2023, electric cars were 19% 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	May			January - May
Taxation Class	2021	2022	2023	2021	2022	2023
New vehicles
New Private Cars	7,337	7,120	10,452	54,843	58,494	67,582
New Goods Vehicles	2,953	2,212	3,087	12,341	10,918	13,196
New Tractors	266	288	230	1,285	1,221	1,267
New Motor Cycles	262	280	278	892	1,423	1,367
New Exempt Vehicles	429	410	537	2,894	2,643	3,047
New Other	134	158	169	696	731	905
Total New Vehicles	11,381	10,468	14,753	72,951	75,430	87,364

Used (imported) vehicles
Used private cars	6,426	4,023	4,323	34,062	19,310	20,345
Used goods vehicles	960	709	900	5,076	3,462	3,862
Used tractors	361	247	272	1,743	1,053	1,190
Used motorcycles	364	379	304	1,677	1,357	1,272
Used other vehicles	620	550	579	2,945	2,283	2,361
Total used vehicles	8,731	5,908	6,378	45,503	27,465	29,030

Total all vehicles	20,112	16,376	21,131	118,454	102,895	116,394

Table 3A: Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO₂ emission band and fuel type, May 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	1,172	316	2,090	993	37	825	1	5,434
B	2,243	1,150	0	492	137	0	0	4,022
C	210	448	0	6	5	0	0	669
D	24	95	0	3	0	0	0	122
E	9	16	0	1	1	0	0	27
F	5	36	0	1	0	0	0	42
G	14	6	0	0	0	0	0	20
Not available	2	113	0	1	0	0	0	116
Total	3,679	2,180	2,090	1,497	180	825	1	10,452

Table 3B: Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO₂ emission band and fuel type, January-May 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	7,730	1,571	11,918	6,678	213	5,573	3	33,686
B	14,298	8,490	0	3,084	1,400	0	0	27,272
C	1,654	3,403	0	64	12	3	0	5,136
D	116	542	0	27	4	1	0	690
E	51	75	0	2	11	0	0	139
F	23	145	0	4	0	0	0	172
G	55	56	0	0	0	0	0	111
Not available	17	354	0	5	0	0	0	376
Total	23,994	14,636	11,918	9,864	1,640	5,577	3	67,582

Table 4: Number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time by make, May 2023
Make	May			January - May
Make	New	Used (imported)	Total	New	Used (imported)	Total
Audi	371	451	822	3,012	2,003	5,015
BMW	399	419	818	2,665	2,005	4,670
Citroen	196	43	239	836	234	1,070
Dacia	563	5	568	3,126	60	3,186
Fiat	56	36	92	275	166	441
Ford	435	247	682	3,607	1,230	4,837
Honda	19	289	308	143	1,241	1,384
Hyundai	490	108	598	6,217	534	6,751
Jaguar	3	24	27	52	107	159
Kia	748	68	816	5,059	317	5,376
Land Rover	65	72	137	355	308	663
Lexus	40	32	72	325	145	470
Mazda	88	86	174	713	412	1,125
Mercedes Benz	244	222	466	1,812	960	2,772
Mini	50	26	76	399	126	525
Mitsubishi	- 0	45	45	- 0	265	265
Nissan	247	294	541	2,467	1,669	4,136
Opel	486	2	488	1,922	3	1,925
Peugeot	471	144	615	2,614	609	3,223
Renault	296	78	374	2,145	363	2,508
Seat	312	25	337	1,470	196	1,666
Skoda	761	80	841	5,590	463	6,053
Ssangyong	2	- 0	2	53	1	54
Subaru	4	3	7	26	16	42
Suzuki	177	69	246	1,190	318	1,508
Tesla	294	7	301	1,098	32	1,130
Toyota	1,344	388	1,732	9,821	1,756	11,577
Vauxhall	- 0	62	62	1	428	429
Volkswagen	1,576	853	2,429	7,356	3,713	11,069
Volvo	302	91	393	1,305	390	1,695
Other	413	54	467	1,928	275	2,203
Total	10,452	4,323	14,775	67,582	20,345	87,927
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	May-22	April 2023	May-23	Monthly % change
New vehicles
New private cars	7,799	10,368	11,044	7%
New goods vehicles	1,896	2,501	2,488	-1%
New tractors	210	222	164	-26%
New motor cycles	233	256	229	-11%
New exempt vehicles	422	513	533	4%
New other	135	145	138	-5%
Total new vehicles	10,695	14,005	14,596	4%

Used (imported) vehicles
Used private cars	3,925	4,305	4,030	-6%
Used goods vehicles	650	811	789	-3%
Used tractors	193	235	204	-13%
Used motorcycles	262	250	209	-16%
Used other vehicles	469	482	471	-2%
Total used vehicles	5,499	6,083	5,703	-6%

Total all vehicles	16,194	20,088	20,299	1%

Vehicles licensed for the first time May 2023