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Vehicles licensed for the first time November 2022

Number of new diesel cars licensed for the first time continues to decrease

Online ISSN: 2009-5678
CSO statistical publication, , 11am

Key Findings

  • The number of new cars licensed in November 2022 rose by 186 (9%) vehicles compared with November 2021.

  • In the first 11 months of 2022, 15% of all new cars licensed for the first time were electric compared with 8% in the same period in 2021.

  • There was a fall of 14% in the number of used private cars licensed in November 2022 compared with November 2021.

  • In the first 11 months of 2022, 27% of new private cars licensed were diesel, compared with 34% in the same period in 2021.

  • The number of used private cars licensed in the first 11 months of 2022 decreased by 32% compared with the same period in 2021 (43,681 versus 64,657).

  • There were 15,329 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in the first 11 months of 2022, compared with 35,129 in the same period in 2021, a fall of 56%.

  • Volkswagen (393) was the most popular make of new private cars licensed in November 2022.

Statistician's Comment

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (09 December 2022) published Vehicles licensed for the first time for November 2022.

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 82% from 8,414 in the first 11 months of 2021 to 15,291 in the same period in 2022. At the same time, the number of new diesel cars is decreasing. For the first 11 months of 2022, 26,889 new cars licensed were diesel cars compared with 34,174 in the same period in 2021.

Used Private Cars

There were 43,681 used private cars licensed in the first 11 months of 2022 compared with 64,657 in the same period in 2021. The total number of used vehicles licensed in the first 11 months of 2022 was down 30% compared with the same period in 2021. (See table 1)

Most Popular Car Brands

Data also shows that Volkswagen (393) was the most popular make of new private car licensed in November, followed by Toyota (248), Hyundai (203), Renault (201) and Dacia (169). Together, these five makes represent more than half (52%) of all new private cars licensed in November 2022. (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 November 2018 to 2022.

Table 1: Number of vehicles licensed for the first time
 November January - November
 20212022Change 20212022Change
New private cars2,1672,3531869% 101,021100,483-538-1%
New goods vehicles1,7011,8171167% 27,69022,796-4,894-18%
New other vehicles569567-20% 11,87711,929520%
Total new vehicles4,4374,7373007% 140,588135,208-5,380-4%
          
Used private cars4,3243,739-585-14%64,65743,681-20,976-32%
Used goods vehicles77878351%10,0517,490-2,561-25%
Used other vehicles937910-27-3%12,63110,213-2,418-19%
Total used vehicles6,0395,432-607-10% 87,33961,384-25,955-30%
Figure 1 Private Cars Licensed for the first time
Table 2 Number of vehicles licensed for the first time classified by taxation class

Most popular makes of new cars, November 2022
Volkswagen 17
Skoda 11
Hyundai 9
Kia9
Renault7
Other46
Most popular makes of new cars November 2021
Volkswagen 13
Toyota11
Hyundai 5
Renault5
Dacia5
Other62
Table 3A: Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO2 emission band and fuel type, November 2022

Table 3B Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO2 emission band and fuel type, January-November 2022

Table 4 Number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time by make, November 2022

X-axis labelUnadjusted dataAdjusted dataTrend
November 2017159493239612
December 201760192769709
January 201825813102839860
February 2018165011041810025
March 2018160881006010137
April 201811557985510159
May 201893621013610075
June 2018371699279916
July 201820743100799707
August 2018768194259477
September 2018439789279220
October 2018287478888993
November 2018164789948887
December 2018778110218938
January 20192227991289143
February 20191417890039421
March 201914404100839667
April 201913794108069808
May 2019912697649787
June 2019385899389596
July 20191874187989298
August 2019720291239004
September 2019410474318788
October 2019321484558677
November 2019167686258618
December 201972987568584
January 20202066588168556
February 20201326382988547
March 20201023969037008
April 2020133811091142
May 2020149017082425
June 2020218949674435
July 20201532973356967
August 2020736091689407
September 20205747905711004
October 202041891073711265
November 20201468683810844
December 202010321106210507
January 202116948818110207
February 20211167271229937
March 20211067268269705
April 2021821471599544
May 2021733785319447
June 20214980109519400
July 202120232104719358
August 2021856396679262
September 2021635492479097
October 2021388292318871
November 2021216792058649
December 202183285888455
January 20221581479918294
February 20221364382028167
March 20221187282578088
April 20221004584108102
May 2022712080278245
June 2022377484188514
July 20221507881958874
August 2022894293789260
September 202273159962
October 2022452710072
November 202223539700
Table 5 Seasonally adjusted number of vehicles licensed for the first time classified by taxation class

X-axis label20182019202020212022 to date
<1 year old1.91.71.61.10.9
1-2 years old18.317.617.711.46.8
3-5 years old50.850.356.35635.9
6-9 years old24.425.619.824.942.7
Over 10 years old4.64.84.76.613.7
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

Additional Data

More detailed statistics on Vehicle Licensing can be found under “Data”.