In the first eight months of 2024, 14% of all new cars licensed for the first time were electric compared with 18% in the same period in 2023 (14,333 vs 19,021).
The total number of new private cars licensed in the first eight months of 2024 was 1% higher than in the same period in 2023 (103,511 vs 102,600). The number of used (imported) cars licensed increased by 26% (42,161 vs 33,359) over the same period.
The number of new petrol and electric hybrid cars licensed in the first eight months of 2024 rose by 31% when compared with the same period in 2023 (21,351 vs 16,239). This has driven up the share of hybrids among new private cars from 18% to 22%.
The combined share of petrol and diesel cars among new private cars licensed year-to-date has remained the same as in 2023 at 55%.
Toyota (1,135) was the most popular make of new private car licensed in August 2024.
Registration and licensing figures may differ in a given month for a number of reasons, some of which are outlined below:
Figure 1 shows data on the number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time in August 2020 to August 2024
| Table 1 Number of vehicles licensed for the first time classified by taxation class | |||||||||
| Taxation Class | August | January - August | |||||||
| 2023 | 2024 | Change | 2023 | 2024 | Change | ||||
| New vehicles | |||||||||
| New Private Cars | 11,328 | 9,280 | -2,048 | -18% | 102,600 | 103,511 | 911 | 1% | |
| New Goods Vehicles | 2,724 | 2,627 | -97 | -4% | 20,961 | 23,826 | 2,865 | 14% | |
| New Tractors | 199 | 184 | -15 | -8% | 1,879 | 1,736 | -143 | -8% | |
| New Motor Cycles | 252 | 267 | 15 | 6% | 2,313 | 2,226 | -87 | -4% | |
| New Exempt Vehicles | 742 | 756 | 14 | 2% | 5,059 | 5,018 | -41 | -1% | |
| New Other | 131 | 173 | 42 | 32% | 1,363 | 1,879 | 516 | 38% | |
| Total New Vehicles | 15,376 | 13,287 | -2,089 | -14% | 134,175 | 138,196 | 4,021 | 3% | |
| Used (imported) vehicles | |||||||||
| Used private cars | 4,559 | 5,408 | 849 | 19% | 33,359 | 42,161 | 8,802 | 26% | |
| Used goods vehicles | 848 | 887 | 39 | 5% | 6,266 | 7,159 | 893 | 14% | |
| Used tractors | 180 | 198 | 18 | 10% | 1,824 | 1,782 | -42 | -2% | |
| Used motorcycles | 265 | 258 | -7 | -3% | 2,122 | 2,014 | -108 | -5% | |
| Used other vehicles | 521 | 646 | 125 | 24% | 3,850 | 4,423 | 573 | 15% | |
| Total used vehicles | 6,373 | 7,397 | 1,024 | 16% | 47,421 | 57,539 | 10,118 | 21% | |
| Total all vehicles | 21,749 | 20,684 | -1,065 | -5% | 181,596 | 195,735 | 14,139 | 8% | |
Figure 2 In August 2024, 17% of all new private cars licensed were electric.
| Most popular makes of new cars, August 2024 | |
| Toyota | 12 |
| Volkswagen | 12 |
| Kia | 10 |
| Skoda | 10 |
| Hyundai | 10 |
| Other | 47 |
| Most popular makes of new cars, August 2023 | |
| Toyota | 10 |
| Volkswagen | 14 |
| Kia | 7 |
| Skoda | 9 |
| Hyundai | 12 |
| Other | 49 |
| Most popular make of new electric model cars, August 2024 | |
| Tesla Model 3 | 14 |
| Volkswagen ID.4 | 9 |
| Tesla Model Y | 7 |
| Kia EV 6 | 5 |
| BYD Seal | 5 |
| Other | 60 |
| Most popular make of new electric model cars, August 2023 | |
| Volkswagen ID.4 | 11 |
| MG MG4 | 10 |
| Tesla Model Y | 7 |
| Tesla Model 3 | 7 |
| Hyundai Kona | 5 |
| Other | 59 |
The column titles in Table 5 were amended at 2.55 pm following the publication of the release on 10 September 2024. The titles of some of the columns did not initially align to the corresponding data in the columns.
| X-axis label | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 to date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| <1 year old | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 1-2 years old | 18 | 11 | 7 | 9 | 8 |
| 3-5 years old | 56 | 56 | 36 | 29 | 27 |
| 6-9 years old | 20 | 25 | 42 | 42 | 42 |
| Over 10 years old | 5 | 7 | 14 | 19 | 23 |
| X-axis label | Unadjusted data | Adjusted data | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| August 2019 | 7202 | 8660 | 8539 |
| September 2019 | 4104 | 7636 | 8127 |
| October 2019 | 3214 | 7652 | 7973 |
| November 2019 | 1676 | 8049 | 8022 |
| December 2019 | 729 | 8148 | 8162 |
| January 2020 | 20665 | 8767 | 8285 |
| February 2020 | 13263 | 8625 | 8309 |
| March 2020 | 10239 | 6956 | 8238 |
| April 2020 | 1338 | 1062 | 1122 |
| May 2020 | 1490 | 1777 | 2669 |
| June 2020 | 2189 | 5081 | 5033 |
| July 2020 | 15329 | 7363 | 7528 |
| August 2020 | 7360 | 8669 | 8850 |
| September 2020 | 5747 | 9115 | 9111 |
| October 2020 | 4189 | 9527 | 9204 |
| November 2020 | 1468 | 6442 | 9098 |
| December 2020 | 1032 | 10631 | 8831 |
| January 2021 | 16948 | 8297 | 8492 |
| February 2021 | 11672 | 7764 | 8249 |
| March 2021 | 10672 | 6628 | 8222 |
| April 2021 | 8214 | 6949 | 8437 |
| May 2021 | 7337 | 8679 | 8791 |
| June 2021 | 4980 | 10967 | 9134 |
| July 2021 | 20232 | 10334 | 9336 |
| August 2021 | 8563 | 9096 | 9328 |
| September 2021 | 6354 | 9405 | 9164 |
| October 2021 | 3882 | 8575 | 8935 |
| November 2021 | 2167 | 8779 | 8718 |
| December 2021 | 832 | 8321 | 8546 |
| January 2022 | 15814 | 8221 | 8429 |
| February 2022 | 13643 | 9319 | 8331 |
| March 2022 | 11872 | 7928 | 8223 |
| April 2022 | 10045 | 8092 | 8120 |
| May 2022 | 7120 | 7841 | 8065 |
| June 2022 | 3774 | 8398 | 8140 |
| July 2022 | 15078 | 8003 | 8351 |
| August 2022 | 8942 | 8527 | 8642 |
| September 2022 | 7315 | 10518 | 8894 |
| October 2022 | 4527 | 9725 | 9045 |
| November 2022 | 2353 | 9380 | 9116 |
| December 2022 | 866 | 8772 | 9152 |
| January 2023 | 16787 | 8741 | 9239 |
| February 2023 | 13284 | 9228 | 9405 |
| March 2023 | 15782 | 10183 | 9660 |
| April 2023 | 11277 | 9715 | 9950 |
| May 2023 | 10452 | 10422 | 10183 |
| June 2023 | 5584 | 12797 | 10258 |
| July 2023 | 18106 | 9776 | 10194 |
| August 2023 | 11328 | 10478 | 10094 |
| September 2023 | 6882 | 10032 | 10021 |
| October 2023 | 4587 | 9602 | 9984 |
| November 2023 | 2291 | 9563 | 9983 |
| December 2023 | 1064 | 10670 | 10036 |
| January 2024 | 20861 | 10319 | 10084 |
| February 2024 | 13979 | 9564 | 10078 |
| March 2024 | 14916 | 9939 | 9995 |
| April 2024 | 12409 | 10257 | 9816 |
| May 2024 | 10055 | 9803 | 9583 |
| June 2024 | 3499 | 8814 | |
| July 2024 | 18512 | 9201 | |
| August 2024 | 9280 | 8939 |
The share of electric cars in the total number of new cars licensed grew from 1% in 2018 to 19% in 2023.
At the same time, the share of diesel cars is falling. In 2018, 54% of all new cars licensed were diesel cars compared with 22% in 2023. See figure 9 and figure 10.
| X-axis label | Petrol | Diesel | Electric | PHEV | Hybrid | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 39 | 54 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| 2019 | 40 | 47 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 0 |
| 2020 | 37 | 43 | 5 | 3 | 12 | 0 |
| 2021 | 32 | 34 | 8 | 7 | 18 | 0 |
| 2022 | 30 | 27 | 15 | 7 | 20 | 1 |
| 2023 | 33 | 22 | 19 | 8 | 17 | 1 |
| X-axis label | Number of new electric private cars | Percentage of all new private cars |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 1222 | 1 |
| 2019 | 3443 | 3 |
| 2020 | 3940 | 5 |
| 2021 | 8554 | 8 |
| 2022 | 15462 | 15 |
| 2023 | 22493 | 19 |
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (10 September 2024) published Vehicles licensed for the first time for August 2024.
Commenting on the data, Damien Lenihan, Statistician in the Transport Section of the CSO, said: “Today’s figures from the CSO show a 25% decrease in the number of electric cars licensed for the first time in the first eight months of 2024 (14,333) when compared with the same period in 2023 (19,021). Over the same period, there was growth in the licensing of petrol & electric hybrid vehicles. The number of new petrol and electric hybrid cars licensed increased by 31% from 16,239 in the first eight months of 2023 to 21,351 in the same period of 2024.
In the first eight months of 2024, 33,267 new cars licensed were petrol compared with 34,445 in the same period of 2023, a fall of 3%. Comparing the same eight-month periods in 2023 and 2024, the number of new diesel cars licensed rose by 6% (22,484 vs 23,753).
Used Private Cars
There were 11,280 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in the first eight months of 2024, compared with 10,739 in the same period of 2023, an increase of 5%.
The total number of used vehicles licensed in the first eight months of 2024 was up 21% compared with the same period in 2023 (See Table 1).
Most Popular Car Brands
Data also shows that Toyota (1,135) was the most popular make of new private car licensed in August 2024, followed by Volkswagen (1,094), Kia (894), Skoda (892), and Hyundai (882). Together, these five makes represented more than half (53%) of all new private cars licensed in August 2024 (See Table 4).
The most popular brand of new electric car licensed in August 2024 was Tesla Model 3 (224), followed by Volkswagen ID.4 (143), and Tesla Model Y (104) (See TEM28 for further information).”