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Vehicles licensed for the first time October 2023

Number of new petrol cars licensed for the first time were up by 28% in the first 10 months of 2023

Online ISSN: 2009-5678

CSO statistical publication, 09 November 2023, 11am

Key Findings

Between January and October 2023, 37,714 new cars licensed were petrol cars compared with 29,427 in the same period in 2022, an increase of 28%.
In the first ten months of 2023, 19% of all new cars licensed for the first time were electric compared with 15% in the same period in 2022.
New priate hybrid cars accounted for 26% of all new private cars licensed of which plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV) were 8%.
The number of new private cars licensed in the first 10 months of 2023 rose by 16% when compared with the same period in 2022.
Just over one-fifth (22%) of new private cars licensed between January and October 2023 were diesel compared with over a quarter (27%) in the same period in 2022.
The number of used cars licensed in the first 10 months of 2023 rose by 5% compared with the same period in 2022 (41,898 versus 39,942).
There were 13,130 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in the first 10 months of 2023, compared with 14,017 in the same period in 2022, a fall of 6%.
Volkswagen (561) was the most popular make of new private cars licensed in October 2023.

Statistician's Comment

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (09 November 2023) published Vehicles licensed for the first time for October 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 demonstrating consumer preferences for climate friendly options. Almost half (45%) of all new private cars licensed were electric, PHEV or hybrid. The number of new electric cars licensed has grown by almost half (47%) from 14,707 between January and October 2022 to 21,667 in the same 10-month period of 2023.

In the period January to October 2023, 37,714 new cars licensed were petrol cars compared with 29,427 in the same period in 2022, an increase of 28%. Over the same time period, new diesel cars licensed have decreased by 4%.

Used Private Cars

There were 13,130 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in the first 10 months of 2023, compared with 14,017 in the same period in 2022, a fall of 6%.

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

Most Popular Car Brands

Data also shows that Volkswagen (561) was the most popular make of new private car licensed in October 2023, followed by Skoda (420), Kia (328), BMW (315), and Toyota (311).

Together, these five makes represent just over two-fifths (42%) of all new private cars licensed in October 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
	October				January - October
	2022	2023	Change		2022	2023	Change
New private cars	4,527	4,587	60	1%	98,130	114,069	15,939	16%
New goods vehicles	2,141	2,417	276	13%	20,979	26,185	5,206	25%
New other vehicles	731	797	66	9%	11,362	12,463	1,101	10%
Total new vehicles	7,399	7,801	402	5%	130,471	152,717	22,246	17%

Used private cars	3,802	4,307	505	13%	39,942	41,898	1,956	5%
Used goods vehicles	686	820	134	20%	6,707	7,908	1,201	18%
Used other vehicles	800	798	-2	0%	9,303	9,512	209	2%
Total used vehicles	5,288	5,925	637	12%	55,952	59,318	3,366	6%

Open in Excel: Vehicles licensed for the first time October 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 October 2019 to October 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, October 2023

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

Car Makes

	Most popular makes of new cars, October 2023
Volkswagen	12
Skoda	9
Kia	7
BMW	7
Toyota	7
Other	58

	Most popular makes of new cars, October 2022
Volkswagen	18
Skoda	8
Kia	7
BMW	4
Toyota	5
Other	58

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

Seasonally Adjusted Figures

X-axis label	Unadjusted data	Adjusted data	Trend
October 2018	2874	7306	8995
November 2018	1647	8711	8943
December 2018	778	9347	9078
January 2019	22279	9093	9376
February 2019	14178	9211	9738
March 2019	14404	10514	10038
April 2019	13794	10588	10166
May 2019	9126	10046	10029
June 2019	3858	9994	9631
July 2019	18741	8708	9063
August 2019	7202	8664	8487
September 2019	4104	7570	8101
October 2019	3214	7626	7964
November 2019	1676	8019	7996
December 2019	729	8117	8091
January 2020	20665	8739	8157
February 2020	13263	8514	8134
March 2020	10239	7360	8043
April 2020	1338	1073	1096
May 2020	1490	1776	2609
June 2020	2189	4969	4936
July 2020	15329	7254	7408
August 2020	7360	8523	8731
September 2020	5747	9005	9001
October 2020	4189	9451	9109
November 2020	1468	6399	9035
December 2020	1032	10637	8800
January 2021	16948	8309	8488
February 2021	11672	7765	8264
March 2021	10672	6953	8239
April 2021	8214	7104	8437
May 2021	7337	8629	8762
June 2021	4980	10508	9064
July 2021	20232	10073	9233
August 2021	8563	8976	9216
September 2021	6354	9263	9065
October 2021	3882	8531	8870
November 2021	2167	8671	8704
December 2021	832	8538	8611
January 2022	15814	8285	8564
February 2022	13643	9127	8493
March 2022	11872	8247	8354
April 2022	10045	8341	8171
May 2022	7120	7921	8014
June 2022	3774	7657	7980
July 2022	15078	7953	8113
August 2022	8942	8343	8390
September 2022	7315	10295	8704
October 2022	4527	9507	8955
November 2022	2353	9140	9120
December 2022	866	9268	9220
January 2023	16787	9008	9356
February 2023	13284	9114	9579
March 2023	15782	10214	9881
April 2023	11277	10088	10194
May 2023	10452	10655	10415
June 2023	5584	10957	10454
July 2023	18106	9803	10313
August 2023	11328	10306
September 2023	6882	9713
October 2023	4587	9325

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	1
1-2 years old	18	18	11	7	8
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 January 2023 to October 2023. In October 2023, electric cars were one quarter (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	October			January - October
Taxation Class	2021	2022	2023	2021	2022	2023
New vehicles	3,882	4,527	4,587	98,854	98,130	114,069
New Private Cars	2,550	2,141	2,417	25,989	20,979	26,185
New Goods Vehicles	163	146	122	2,274	2,177	2,155
New Tractors	192	174	183	2,156	2,693	2,740
New Motor Cycles	295	333	355	5,390	5,178	5,928
New Exempt Vehicles	157	78	137	1,488	1,314	1,640
New Other	7,239	7,399	7,801	136,151	130,471	152,717
Total New Vehicles

Used (imported) vehicles
Used private cars	4,506	3,802	4,307	60,333	39,942	41,898
Used goods vehicles	814	686	820	9,273	6,707	7,908
Used tractors	204	181	177	2,927	1,989	2,195
Used motorcycles	216	225	183	3,081	2,673	2,511
Used other vehicles	466	394	438	5,686	4,641	4,806
Total used vehicles	6,206	5,288	5,925	81,300	55,952	59,318

Total all vehicles	13,445	12,687	13,726	217,451	186,423	212,035

Table 3B: Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO₂ emission band and fuel type, January-October 2023
	Fuel Type							Total
Band	Petrol	Diesel	Electric	Petrol & electric hybrid	Diesel & electric hybrid	Petrol or Diesel plug-in electric hybrid	Other	Total
A	12,324	2,838	21,667	12,666	445	9,646	4	59,590
B	22,420	14,368	0	4,878	1,697	0	1	43,364
C	2,529	5,880	0	79	22	4	0	8,514
D	197	931	0	43	9	1	0	1,181
E	78	99	0	3	16	0	0	196
F	40	243	0	5	0	0	0	288
G	86	67	0	0	0	0	0	153
Not available	40	736	0	6	0	1	0	783
Total	37,714	25,162	21,667	17,680	2,189	9,652	5	114,069

Table 4: Number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time by make, October 2023
Make	October			January - October
Make	New	Used (imported)	Total	New	Used (imported)	Total
Audi	173	477	650	4,968	4,349	9,317
BMW	315	359	674	4,469	3,950	8,419
Citroen	54	58	112	1,279	499	1,778
Dacia	157	17	174	4,560	113	4,673
Fiat	18	39	57	561	348	909
Ford	263	212	475	5,663	2,310	7,973
Honda	7	266	273	207	2,699	2,906
Hyundai	188	110	298	10,934	1,028	11,962
Jaguar	9	18	27	84	196	280
Kia	328	66	394	8,320	620	8,940
Land Rover	63	91	154	689	624	1,313
Lexus	18	44	62	590	305	895
Mazda	44	65	109	1,209	756	1,965
Mercedes Benz	93	236	329	2,688	2,115	4,803
Mini	49	32	81	660	290	950
Mitsubishi	0	44	44	2	519	521
Nissan	113	300	413	4,039	3,203	7,242
Opel	93	3	96	2,764	8	2,772
Peugeot	177	136	313	4,251	1,253	5,504
Renault	170	80	250	3,979	699	4,678
Seat	189	36	225	2,510	380	2,890
Skoda	420	74	494	9,247	830	10,077
Ssangyong	0	1	1	65	6	71
Subaru	0	7	7	38	56	94
Suzuki	112	71	183	2,009	658	2,667
Tesla	181	6	187	3,031	70	3,101
Toyota	311	420	731	15,587	3,832	19,419
Vauxhall	0	71	71	1	804	805
Volkswagen	561	835	1,396	12,772	8,019	20,791
Volvo	63	79	142	2,044	792	2,836
Other	418	54	472	4,849	567	5,416
Total	4,587	4,307	8,894	114,069	41,898	155,967
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 2022	September 2023	October 2023	Monthly % change
New vehicles
New private cars	9,507	9,713	9,325	-4%
New goods vehicles	2,211	2,495	2,463	-1%
New tractors	222	182	171	-6%
New motor cycles	230	254	238	-6%
New exempt vehicles	508	519	519	0%
New other	118	147	195	33%
Total new vehicles	12,796	13,310	12,911	-3%

Used (imported) vehicles
Used private cars	3,834	4,067	4,203	3%
Used goods vehicles	679	826	776	-6%
Used tractors	213	224	203	-9%
Used motorcycles	274	209	213	2%
Used other vehicles	418	475	451	-5%
Total used vehicles	5,418	5,801	5,846	1%

Total all vehicles	18,214	19,111	18,757	-2%

Table 6: Number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time
Private cars	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023 Jan-Oct
New	113,305	84,309	101,853	101,349	114,069
Used (imported)	108,895	78,541	68,042	46,567	41,898
Total	222,200	162,850	169,895	147,916	155,967
% used (imported)	49%	48%	40%	31%	27%

Vehicles licensed for the first time October 2023