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Vehicles licensed for the first time October 2022

Number of new electric private cars licensed in first 10 months of 2022 up 82% compared with the same period in 2021

Online ISSN: 2009-5678

CSO statistical release, 09 November 2022, 11am

Key Findings

The number of new cars licensed in October 2022 rose by 645 (17%) vehicles compared with October 2021.
In the first 10 months of 2022, 22% of all new cars licensed for the first time were electric or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) compared with 16% in the same period in 2021.
There was a fall of 16% in the number of used private cars licensed in October 2022 compared with October 2021.
In the first 10 months of 2022, 27% of new private cars licensed were diesel, compared with 34% in the same period in 2021.
The number of used cars licensed in the first 10 months of 2022 decreased by 34% compared with the same period in 2021 (39,942 versus 60,333).
There were 14,017 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in the first 10 months of 2022, compared with 33,317 in the same period in 2021, a fall of 58%.
Volkswagen (827) was the most popular make of new private cars licensed in October 2022.

Statistician's Comment

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (09 November 2022) published Vehicles licensed for the first time for October 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 (PHEV) vehicles licensed in Ireland. The number of new electric cars licensed has increased by 82% from 8,089 in the first 10 months of 2021 to 14,707 in 2022. At the same time, the number of new diesel cars is decreasing. For the first 10 months of 2022, 26,309 new cars licensed were diesel cars compared with 33,538 in the same period in 2021.

Used Private Cars

There were 39,942 used private cars licensed in the first 10 months of 2022 compared with 60,333 in the same period in 2021. The total number of used vehicles licensed in the first 10 months of 2022 was down 31% compared with the same period in 2021. (See table 1)

Most Popular Car Brands

Data also shows that Volkswagen (827) was the most popular make of new private car licensed in October, followed by Skoda (369), Hyundai (310), Kia (303), and Renault (293). Together, these five makes represent almost half (46%) of all new private cars licensed in October 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 September 2018 to 2022.

Table 1: Number of vehicles licensed for the first time
	October				January - October
	2021	2022	Change		2021	2022	Change
New private cars	3,882	4,527	645	17%	98,854	98,130	-724	-1%
New goods vehicles	2,550	2,141	-409	-16%	25,989	20,979	-5,010	-20%
New other vehicles	807	731	-76	-9%	11,308	11,362	54	0%
Total new vehicles	7,239	7,399	160	2%	136,151	130,471	-5,680	-4%

Used private cars	4,506	3,802	-704	-16%	60,333	39,942	-20,391	-34%
Used goods vehicles	814	686	-128	-16%	9,273	6,707	-2,566	-28%
Used other vehicles	886	800	-86	-10%	11,694	9,303	-2,391	-20%
Total used vehicles	6,206	5,288	-918	-15%	81,300	55,952	-25,348	-31%

Open in Excel: Vehicles licensed for the first time October 2022 Table 1 (XLS 11KB)

Visit Table TEM01 on PxStat

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

	Most popular makes of new cars, October 2022
Volkswagen	18
Skoda	8
Hyundai	7
Kia	7
Renault	6
Other	54

	Most popular makes of new cars October 2021
Volkswagen	12
Skoda	9
Hyundai	6
Kia	5
Renault	5
Other	62

Title on Figure 3 amended on 7th December 2022 to show corrected year.

Table 3A: Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO2 emission band and fuel type, October 2022

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

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

X-axis label	Unadjusted data	Adjusted data	Trend
October 2017	3255	9459	9604
November 2017	1594	9324	9614
December 2017	601	9275	9710
January 2018	25813	10287	9861
February 2018	16501	10417	10027
March 2018	16088	10066	10140
April 2018	11557	9860	10162
May 2018	9362	10131	10078
June 2018	3716	9942	9919
July 2018	20743	10073	9711
August 2018	7681	9425	9481
September 2018	4397	8939	9223
October 2018	2874	7891	8997
November 2018	1647	8998	8889
December 2018	778	11029	8937
January 2019	22279	9124	9137
February 2019	14178	9000	9411
March 2019	14404	10072	9656
April 2019	13794	10812	9798
May 2019	9126	9752	9782
June 2019	3858	9958	9596
July 2019	18741	8799	9302
August 2019	7202	9132	9011
September 2019	4104	7456	8795
October 2019	3214	8457	8682
November 2019	1676	8628	8620
December 2019	729	8758	8584
January 2020	20665	8810	8554
February 2020	13263	8294	8541
March 2020	10239	6896	7001
April 2020	1338	1106	1139
May 2020	1490	1703	2420
June 2020	2189	4986	4431
July 2020	15329	7340	6968
August 2020	7360	9194	9416
September 2020	5747	9111	11017
October 2020	4189	10797	11273
November 2020	1468	6806	10840
December 2020	1032	11056	10490
January 2021	16948	8167	10180
February 2021	11672	7115	9904
March 2021	10672	6815	9670
April 2021	8214	7128	9509
May 2021	7337	8506	9421
June 2021	4980	10965	9389
July 2021	20232	10494	9366
August 2021	8563	9720	9283
September 2021	6354	9344	9123
October 2021	3882	9345	8890
November 2021	2167	9094	8653
December 2021	832	8584	8442
January 2022	15814	7977	8265
February 2022	13643	8189	8129
March 2022	11872	8228	8049
April 2022	10045	8363	8066
May 2022	7120	7990	8212
June 2022	3774	8415	8496
July 2022	15078	8208	8900
August 2022	8942	9453
September 2022	7315	10116
October 2022	4527	10292

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

X-axis label	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022 to date
<1 year old	1.9	1.7	1.6	1.1	0.8
1-2 years old	18.3	17.6	17.7	11.4	6.7
3-5 years old	50.8	50.3	56.3	56	35.6
6-9 years old	24.4	25.6	19.8	24.9	43.1
Over 10 years old	4.6	4.8	4.7	6.6	13.8

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

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Table 2: Number of vehicles licensed for the first time classified by taxation class
Taxation Class	October			January - October
Taxation Class	2020	2021	2022	2020	2021	2022
New vehicles
New Private Cars	4,189	3,882	4,527	81,809	98,854	98,130
New Goods Vehicles	2,513	2,550	2,141	19,251	25,989	20,979
New Tractors	131	163	146	1,994	2,274	2,177
New Motor Cycles	134	192	174	1,595	2,156	2,693
New Exempt Vehicles	421	295	333	5,387	5,390	5,178
New Other	73	157	78	1,010	1,488	1,314
Total New Vehicles	7,461	7,239	7,399	111,046	136,151	130,471

Used (imported) vehicles
Used private cars	9,543	4,506	3,802	61,731	60,333	39,942
Used goods vehicles	1,449	814	686	9,350	9,273	6,707
Used tractors	273	204	181	2,039	2,927	1,989
Used motorcycles	365	216	225	2,797	3,081	2,673
Used other vehicles	564	466	394	4,005	5,686	4,641
Total used vehicles	12,194	6,206	5,288	79,922	81,300	55,952

Total all vehicles	19,655	13,445	12,687	190,968	217,451	186,423

Table 3A: Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO₂ emission band and fuel type, October 2022
Band	Fuel Type							Total
Band	Petrol	Diesel	Electric	Petrol & electric hybrid	Diesel & electric hybrid	Petrol or Diesel plug-in electric hybrid	Other	Total
A	423	158	1,201	164	12	271	1	2,230
B	949	750	0	136	11	0	2	1,848
C	104	194	0	8	1	0	0	307
D	18	28	0	8	2	0	0	56
E	3	9	0	1	1	0	0	14
F	3	6	0	0	0	0	0	9
G	7	4	0	0	0	0	0	11
Not available	5	47	0	0	0	0	0	52
Total	1,512	1,196	1,201	317	27	271	3	4,527

Table 3B: Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO₂ emission band and fuel type, January-October 2022
Band	Fuel Type							Total
Band	Petrol	Diesel	Electric	Petrol & electric hybrid	Diesel & electric hybrid	Petrol or Diesel plug-in electric hybrid	Other	Total
A	7,184	3,026	14,707	12,812	185	7,137	409	45,460
B	18,432	16,731	0	5,636	408	48	292	41,547
C	3,330	4,710	0	247	216	91	9	8,603
D	280	818	0	89	28	0	0	1,215
E	65	364	0	27	40	0	0	496
F	32	162	0	6	1	0	0	201
G	77	39	0	3	0	0	0	119
Not available	27	459	0	2	1	0	0	489
Total	29,427	26,309	14,707	18,822	879	7,276	710	98,130

Table 4: Number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time by make, October 2022
Make	October			January - October
Make	New	Used (imported)	Total	New	Used (imported)	Total
Audi	204	348	552	3,960	3,539	7,499
BMW	173	331	504	3,817	3,818	7,635
Citroen	148	47	195	1,455	443	1,898
Dacia	152	18	170	2,972	117	3,089
Fiat	19	32	51	343	405	748
Ford	265	216	481	4,712	2,460	7,172
Honda	15	229	244	341	2,551	2,892
Hyundai	310	98	408	11,642	1,088	12,730
Jaguar	11	19	30	160	232	392
Kia	303	59	362	7,479	599	8,078
Land Rover	18	46	64	439	439	878
Lexus	13	27	40	413	342	755
Mazda	57	99	156	1,038	682	1,720
Mercedes Benz	185	152	337	3,450	1,905	5,355
Mini	71	32	103	591	288	879
Mitsubishi	0	54	54	4	505	509
Nissan	97	318	415	3,866	3,299	7,165
Opel	177	0	177	2,965	7	2,972
Peugeot	112	98	210	4,377	988	5,365
Renault	293	66	359	3,725	628	4,353
Seat	66	47	113	1,583	458	2,041
Skoda	369	85	454	6,962	829	7,791
Ssangyong	3	0	3	97	8	105
Subaru	0	4	4	12	47	59
Suzuki	85	51	136	1,226	651	1,877
Tesla	99	3	102	1,299	25	1,324
Toyota	207	390	597	14,993	4,232	19,225
Vauxhall	0	82	82	0	1,061	1,061
Volkswagen	827	727	1,554	10,895	7,249	18,144
Volvo	117	71	188	1,674	647	2,321
Other	131	53	184	1,640	400	2,040
Total	4,527	3,802	8,329	98,130	39,942	138,072
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	October 2021	September 2022	October 2022	Monthly % change
New vehicles
New private cars	9,345	10,116	10,292	2%
New goods vehicles	2,647	2,189	2,176	-1%
New tractors	235	217	214	-1%
New motor cycles	253	229	229	0%
New exempt vehicles	433	513	497	-3%
New other	268	120	127	6%
Total new vehicles	13,181	13,384	13,535	1%

Used (imported) vehicles
Used private cars	4,451	4,014	3,801	-5%
Used goods vehicles	792	659	670	2%
Used tractors	240	185	210	14%
Used motorcycles	251	234	269	15%
Used other vehicles	481	447	409	-9%
Total used vehicles	6,215	5,539	5,359	-3%

Total all vehicles	19,396	18,923	18,894	0%

Vehicles licensed for the first time October 2022