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Vehicles licensed for the first time November 2023

New electric cars licensed for the first time from January to November of 2023 rose by 46% compared with the same period in 2022

Online ISSN: 2009-5678

CSO statistical publication, 11 December 2023, 11am

Key Findings

The number of new cars licensed in November 2023 decreased by 62 vehicles (-3%) compared with November 2022.
In the first eleven months of 2023, 19% of all new cars licensed for the first time were electric compared with 15% in the same period in 2022.
Slightly over one-fifth (22%) of new private cars licensed in January to November 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 eleven months of 2023 increased by 7% compared with the same period in 2022 (46,570 versus 43,681).
There were 14,394 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in the first eleven months of 2023, compared with 15,329 in first eleven months of 2022, a fall of 6%.
Volkswagen (339) was the most popular make of new private car licensed in November 2023.

Statistician's Comment

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (11 December 2023) published Vehicles licensed for the first time for November 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 risen by almost half (46%) from 15,291 from January to November of 2022, to 22,249 in the same period of 2023. In the period January to November 2023, 38,373 new cars licensed were petrol cars compared with 30,333 in the same period in 2022, an increase of 27%. At the same time, new diesel cars licensed have decreased by 4% in the same period.

Used Private Cars

There were 14,394 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in the first eleven months of 2023, compared with 15,329 in the same period in 2022, a fall of 6%.

The total number of used vehicles licensed in the period January to November 2023 was up 7% compared with the same period in 2022 (See Table 1).

Most Popular Car Brands

Data also shows that Volkswagen (339) was the most popular make of new private car licensed in November 2023, followed by Toyota (198), Skoda (163), Tesla (159), and BMW (139).

Together, these five makes represent just over two-fifths (44%) of all new private cars licensed in November 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.

Table 1: Number of vehicles licensed for the first time
	November				January - November
	2022	2023	Change		2022	2023	Change
New private cars	2,353	2,291	-62	-3%	100,483	116,360	15,877	16%
New goods vehicles	1,817	1,965	148	8%	22,796	28,150	5,354	23%
New other vehicles	567	539	-28	-5%	11,929	13,002	1,073	9%
Total new vehicles	4,737	4,795	58	1%	135,208	157,512	22,304	16%

Used private cars	3,739	4,672	933	25%	43,681	46,570	2,889	7%
Used goods vehicles	783	875	92	12%	7,490	8,783	1,293	17%
Used other vehicles	910	869	-41	-5%	10,213	10,381	168	2%
Total used vehicles	5,432	6,416	984	18%	61,384	65,734	4,350	7%

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

Visit Table TEM01 on PxStat

Cars Licensed

Figure 1 shows data on the number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time in November 2019 to November 2023

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

Fuel & Emissions Type

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

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

Car Makes

	Most popular makes of new cars, November 2023
Volkswagen	15
Toyota	9
Skoda	7
Tesla	7
BMW	6
Other	56

	Most popular makes of new cars November 2022
Volkswagen	17
Toyota	11
Skoda	6
Tesla	1
BMW	4
Other	62

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

Seasonally Adjusted Figures

X-axis label	Unadjusted data	Adjusted data	Trend
November 2018	1647	8713	8945
December 2018	778	9352	9080
January 2019	22279	9094	9378
February 2019	14178	9211	9740
March 2019	14404	10513	10039
April 2019	13794	10586	10165
May 2019	9126	10049	10028
June 2019	3858	9990	9630
July 2019	18741	8705	9062
August 2019	7202	8664	8487
September 2019	4104	7569	8101
October 2019	3214	7627	7965
November 2019	1676	8021	7998
December 2019	729	8121	8095
January 2020	20665	8742	8160
February 2020	13263	8517	8136
March 2020	10239	7359	8043
April 2020	1338	1074	1097
May 2020	1490	1777	2609
June 2020	2189	4962	4933
July 2020	15329	7252	7404
August 2020	7360	8522	8727
September 2020	5747	8999	9000
October 2020	4189	9455	9109
November 2020	1468	6405	9038
December 2020	1032	10654	8803
January 2021	16948	8315	8492
February 2021	11672	7770	8269
March 2021	10672	6953	8245
April 2021	8214	7102	8444
May 2021	7337	8628	8768
June 2021	4980	10485	9068
July 2021	20232	10064	9235
August 2021	8563	8969	9218
September 2021	6354	9257	9070
October 2021	3882	8529	8880
November 2021	2167	8704	8721
December 2021	832	8569	8631
January 2022	15814	8306	8584
February 2022	13643	9141	8506
March 2022	11872	8246	8356
April 2022	10045	8328	8163
May 2022	7120	7906	7999
June 2022	3774	7637	7961
July 2022	15078	7940	8097
August 2022	8942	8333	8385
September 2022	7315	10278	8714
October 2022	4527	9498	8983
November 2022	2353	9234	9162
December 2022	866	9323	9266
January 2023	16787	9045	9395
February 2023	13284	9136	9601
March 2023	15782	10211	9882
April 2023	11277	10062	10178
May 2023	10452	10620	10389
June 2023	5584	10919	10430
July 2023	18106	9783	10291
August 2023	11328	10289	10025
September 2023	6882	9689
October 2023	4587	9298
November 2023	2291	9195

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

Imported Cars

X-axis label	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023 to date
<1 year old	2	2	1	1	0.9
1-2 years old	18	18	11	7	9
3-5 years old	50	56	56	36	29
6-9 years old	26	20	25	42	42
Over 10 years old	5	5	7	14	20

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

Cars Licensed by Fuel Type

Figure 6 shows the share of new electric cars licensed from June 2023 to November 2023. In November 2023, 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 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	November			January - November
Taxation Class	2021	2022	2023	2021	2022	2023
New vehicles
New Private Cars	2,167	2,353	2,291	101,021	100,483	116,360
New Goods Vehicles	1,701	1,817	1,965	27,690	22,796	28,150
New Tractors	131	136	98	2,405	2,313	2,253
New Motor Cycles	124	126	127	2,280	2,819	2,867
New Exempt Vehicles	161	224	205	5,551	5,402	6,133
New Other	153	81	109	1,641	1,395	1,749
Total New Vehicles	4,437	4,737	4,795	140,588	135,208	157,512

Used (imported) vehicles
Used private cars	4,324	3,739	4,672	64,657	43,681	46,570
Used goods vehicles	778	783	875	10,051	7,490	8,783
Used tractors	218	222	165	3,145	2,211	2,360
Used motorcycles	226	234	201	3,307	2,907	2,712
Used other vehicles	493	454	503	6,179	5,095	5,309
Total used vehicles	6,039	5,432	6,416	87,339	61,384	65,734

Total all vehicles	10,476	10,169	11,211	227,927	196,592	223,246

Table 3B: Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO₂ emission band and fuel type, January-November 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	12,550	2,889	22,249	12,872	457	9,841	4	60,862
B	22,795	14,656	0	4,935	1,713	0	1	44,100
C	2,570	6,023	0	79	23	4	0	8,699
D	204	950	0	43	10	1	0	1,208
E	79	99	0	3	16	0	0	197
F	44	250	0	5	0	0	0	299
G	88	70	0	0	0	0	0	158
Not available	43	787	0	6	0	1	0	837
Total	38,373	25,724	22,249	17,943	2,219	9,847	5	116,360

Table 4: Number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time by make, November 2023
Make	November			January - November
Make	New	Used (imported)	Total	New	Used (imported)	Total
Audi	92	500	592	5,060	4,849	9,909
BMW	139	445	584	4,608	4,395	9,003
Citroen	45	59	104	1,324	558	1,882
Dacia	81	12	93	4,641	125	4,766
Fiat	42	49	91	603	397	1,000
Ford	87	260	347	5,750	2,570	8,320
Honda	2	315	317	209	3,014	3,223
Hyundai	60	111	171	10,994	1,139	12,133
Jaguar	4	16	20	88	212	300
Kia	124	68	192	8,444	688	9,132
Land Rover	16	83	99	705	707	1,412
Lexus	6	35	41	596	340	936
Mazda	31	90	121	1,240	846	2,086
Mercedes Benz	53	272	325	2,741	2,387	5,128
Mini	26	30	56	686	320	1,006
Mitsubishi	0	44	44	2	563	565
Nissan	38	260	298	4,077	3,463	7,540
Opel	49	0	49	2,813	8	2,821
Peugeot	72	126	198	4,323	1,379	5,702
Renault	121	88	209	4,100	787	4,887
Seat	71	37	108	2,581	417	2,998
Skoda	163	73	236	9,410	903	10,313
Ssangyong	1	1	2	66	7	73
Subaru	1	4	5	39	60	99
Suzuki	50	81	131	2,059	739	2,798
Tesla	159	2	161	3,190	72	3,262
Toyota	198	480	678	15,785	4,312	20,097
Vauxhall	0	87	87	1	891	892
Volkswagen	339	874	1,213	13,111	8,893	22,004
Volvo	32	105	137	2,076	897	2,973
Other	189	65	254	5,038	632	5,670
Total	2,291	4,672	6,963	116,360	46,570	162,930
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	November 2022	October 2023	November 2023	Monthly % change
New vehicles
New private cars	9,234	9,298	9,195	-1%
New goods vehicles	2,372	2,454	2,466	0%
New tractors	219	168	168	0%
New motor cycles	233	237	237	0%
New exempt vehicles	542	517	517	0%
New other	122	191	165	-14%
Total new vehicles	12,722	12,865	12,748	-1%

Used (imported) vehicles
Used private cars	3,752	4,327	4,663	8%
Used goods vehicles	738	779	828	6%
Used tractors	235	199	178	-11%
Used motorcycles	266	213	225	6%
Used other vehicles	434	454	479	6%
Total used vehicles	5,425	5,972	6,373	7%

Total all vehicles	18,147	18,837	19,121	2%

Table 6: Number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time
Private cars	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023 Jan-Nov
New	113,305	84,309	101,853	101,349	116,360
Used (imported)	108,895	78,541	68,042	46,567	46,570
Total	222,200	162,850	169,895	147,916	162,930
% used (imported)	49%	48%	40%	31%	29%

Vehicles licensed for the first time November 2023