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Vehicles licensed for the first time December and Year 2023

Number of new electric cars licensed for the first time in 2023 up by 45% compared with 2022

Online ISSN: 2009-5678

CSO statistical release, 17 January 2024, 11am

Key Findings

The number of new cars licensed in 2023 rose by 16,075 (16%) vehicles when compared with 2022.
In 2023, 19% of all new cars licensed for the first time were electric compared with 15% in 2022.
The number of used cars licensed in 2023 increased by 8% when compared with 2022 (50,381 versus 46,567).
In 2023, 22% of new private cars licensed were diesel, compared with 27% in 2022.
There were 15,365 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in 2023, compared with 16,370 in 2022, a fall of 6%.
Toyota (15,840) was the most popular make of all new private cars licensed in 2023.
The most popular model of new private car licensed in 2023 was Hyundai Tucson followed by Toyota Corolla, Toyota Yaris, Kia Sportage, and Volkswagen ID.4. (See Ireland's Top Motors).

Statistician's Comment

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (17 January 2024) published Vehicles licensed for the first time for December and Year 2023.

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 45% from 15,462 in 2022 to 22,493 in 2023. At the same time, the number of new diesel cars is decreasing. In 2023, 25,938 new cars licensed were diesel cars compared with 27,185 in 2022. The number of new petrol cars licensed in 2023 rose by 27% (38,746 versus 30,627).

Used Private Cars

There were 50,381 used private cars licensed in 2023 compared with 46,567 in 2022.

The total number of used vehicles licensed in 2023 was up by 8% compared with 2022 (See Table 1).

Most Popular Car Brands

Data also shows that Toyota (15,318) was the most popular make of new private car licensed in 2023, followed by Volkswagen (13,359), Hyundai (11,022), Skoda (9,453), and Kia (8,490). Together, these five makes represent half (50%) of all new private cars licensed in 2023 (See Table 4).

Of the new electric cars licensed in 2023, the top make and model was Volkswagen ID.4 (2,887), followed by Tesla Model Y (2,119), Hyundai Ioniq (1,227), and Tesla Model 3 (1,203)."

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
	December				January - December
	2022	2023	Change		2022	2023	Change
New private cars	866	1,064	198	23%	101,349	117,424	16,075	16%
New goods vehicles	859	888	29	3%	23,655	29,038	5,383	23%
New other vehicles	315	314	-1	0%	12,244	13,316	1,072	9%
Total new vehicles	2,040	2,266	226	11%	137,248	159,778	22,530	16%

Used private cars	2,886	3,811	925	32%	46,567	50,381	3,814	8%
Used goods vehicles	573	660	87	15%	8,063	9,443	1,380	17%
Used other vehicles	610	630	20	3%	10,823	11,011	188	2%
Total used vehicles	4,069	5,101	1,032	25%	65,453	70,835	5,382	8%

Open in Excel: Vehicles licensed for the first time December 2023 Table 1 (XLS 16KB)

Visit Table TEM01 on PxStat

Visit Table TEA01 on PxStat

Cars Licensed

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

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

Car Makes

	Most popular makes of new cars, 2023
Toyota	13
Volkswagen	11
Hyundai	9
Skoda	8
Kia	7
Other	50

	Most popular makes of new cars, 2022
Toyota	15
Volkswagen	11
Hyundai	12
Skoda	7
Kia	7
Other	47

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

Seasonally Adjusted Figures

X-axis label	Unadjusted data	Adjusted data	Trend
December 2018	778	9359	9089
January 2019	22279	9102	9381
February 2019	14178	9212	9737
March 2019	14404	10487	10033
April 2019	13794	10587	10158
May 2019	9126	10051	10020
June 2019	3858	9967	9620
July 2019	18741	8703	9051
August 2019	7202	8675	8476
September 2019	4104	7606	8090
October 2019	3214	7632	7956
November 2019	1676	8018	7993
December 2019	729	8120	8094
January 2020	20665	8749	8161
February 2020	13263	8513	8137
March 2020	10239	7340	8039
April 2020	1338	1075	1098
May 2020	1490	1771	2610
June 2020	2189	4947	4936
July 2020	15329	7265	7415
August 2020	7360	8543	8747
September 2020	5747	9045	9025
October 2020	4189	9492	9133
November 2020	1468	6417	9052
December 2020	1032	10669	8802
January 2021	16948	8297	8477
February 2021	11672	7756	8247
March 2021	10672	6929	8225
April 2021	8214	7093	8434
May 2021	7337	8608	8774
June 2021	4980	10406	9099
July 2021	20232	10095	9292
August 2021	8563	9010	9294
September 2021	6354	9377	9150
October 2021	3882	8618	8946
November 2021	2167	8821	8760
December 2021	832	8465	8640
January 2022	15814	8279	8565
February 2022	13643	9118	8465
March 2022	11872	8210	8306
April 2022	10045	8288	8112
May 2022	7120	7862	7956
June 2022	3774	7593	7949
July 2022	15078	7936	8133
August 2022	8942	8394	8467
September 2022	7315	10475	8820
October 2022	4527	9741	9079
November 2022	2353	9520	9218
December 2022	866	8985	9268
January 2023	16787	8970	9346
February 2023	13284	9113	9518
March 2023	15782	10163	9787
April 2023	11277	9997	10089
May 2023	10452	10546	10320
June 2023	5584	10836	10368
July 2023	18106	9779	10252
August 2023	11328	10383	10087
September 2023	6882	9917	9984
October 2023	4587	9670
November 2023	2291	9749
December 2023	1064	11004

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

Imported Cars

Figure 6 shows the share of new electric cars licensed from July 2023 to December 2023. In December 2023, electric cars were 65% of all new private cars licensed.

X-axis label	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
<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	19

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

The share of electric cars in the total number of new cars licensed grew from 1% in 2018 to 19% 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 8 and figure 9.

X-axis label	Petrol	Diesel	Electric	PHEV	Hybrid	Other
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	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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Table 2: Number of vehicles licensed for the first time classified by taxation class
Taxation Class	December			January - December
Taxation Class	2021	2022	2023	2021	2022	2023
New vehicles
New Private Cars	832	866	1,064	101,853	101,349	117,424
New Goods Vehicles	697	859	888	28,387	23,655	29,038
New Tractors	86	55	57	2,491	2,368	2,310
New Motor Cycles	55	52	65	2,335	2,871	2,932
New Exempt Vehicles	53	132	92	5,604	5,534	6,225
New Other	65	76	100	1,706	1,471	1,849
Total New Vehicles	1,788	2,040	2,266	142,376	137,248	159,778

Used (imported) vehicles
Used private cars	3,385	2,886	3,811	68,042	46,567	50,381
Used goods vehicles	580	573	660	10,631	8,063	9,443
Used tractors	196	170	150	3,341	2,381	2,510
Used motorcycles	129	136	144	3,436	3,043	2,856
Used other vehicles	332	304	336	6,511	5,399	5,645
Total used vehicles	4,622	4,069	5,101	91,961	65,453	70,835

Total all vehicles	6,410	6,109	7,367	234,337	202,701	230,613

Table 3B: Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO₂ emission band and fuel type, January-December 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	12,658	2,906	22,493	12,923	469	9,966	4	61,419
B	23,028	14,764	0	4,955	1,726	0	1	44,474
C	2,597	6,071	0	82	23	4	0	8,777
D	206	955	0	52	10	1	0	1,224
E	80	99	0	3	16	0	0	198
F	45	254	0	5	0	0	0	304
G	88	71	0	0	0	0	0	159
Not available	44	818	0	6	0	1	0	869
Total	38,746	25,938	22,493	18,026	2,244	9,972	5	117,424

Table 4: Number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time by make, December 2023
Make	December			January - December
Make	New	Used (imported)	Total	New	Used (imported)	Total
Audi	27	398	425	5,087	5,247	10,334
BMW	34	445	479	4,642	4,840	9,482
BYD	8	0	8	8	0	8
Citroen	10	42	52	1,334	600	1,934
Cupra	15	0	15	15	0	15
Dacia	37	6	43	4,678	131	4,809
Fiat	3	22	25	606	419	1,025
Ford	96	192	288	5,846	2,762	8,608
Honda	0	267	267	209	3,281	3,490
Hyundai	28	74	102	11,022	1,213	12,235
Jaguar	0	18	18	88	230	318
Kia	46	50	96	8,490	738	9,228
Land Rover	6	71	77	711	778	1,489
Lexus	2	34	36	598	374	972
Mazda	10	49	59	1,250	895	2,145
Mercedes Benz	61	239	300	2,802	2,626	5,428
Mini	6	36	42	692	356	1,048
Mitsubishi	0	33	33	2	596	598
Nissan	24	215	239	4,101	3,678	7,779
Opel	25	0	25	2,838	8	2,846
Peugeot	17	125	142	4,340	1,504	5,844
Renault	59	56	115	4,159	843	5,002
Seat	30	22	52	2,611	439	3,050
Skoda	43	63	106	9,453	966	10,419
Ssangyong	1	1	2	67	8	75
Subaru	0	0	0	39	60	99
Suzuki	6	52	58	2,065	791	2,856
Tesla	139	5	144	3,329	77	3,406
Toyota	55	368	423	15,840	4,680	20,520
Vauxhall	0	63	63	1	954	955
Volkswagen	248	734	982	13,359	9,627	22,986
Volvo	7	86	93	2,083	983	3,066
Other	21	45	66	5,059	677	5,736
Total	1,064	3,811	4,875	117,424	50,381	167,805
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	December 2022	November 2023	December 2023	Monthly % change
New vehicles
New private cars	8,985	9,749	11,004	13%
New goods vehicles	2,439	2,494	2,586	4%
New tractors	159	168	174	4%
New motor cycles	211	241	271	12%
New exempt vehicles	686	515	512	-1%
New other	151	169	207	22%
Total new vehicles	12,631	13,336	14,754	11%

Used (imported) vehicles
Used private cars	3,708	4,758	5,033	6%
Used goods vehicles	671	823	800	-3%
Used tractors	198	178	184	3%
Used motorcycles	240	229	272	19%
Used other vehicles	430	483	497	3%
Total used vehicles	5,247	6,471	6,786	5%

Total all vehicles	17,878	19,807	21,540	9%

Table 6: Number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time
Private cars	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
New	113,305	84,309	101,853	101,349	117,424
Used (imported)	108,895	78,541	68,042	46,567	50,381
Total	222,200	162,850	169,895	147,916	167,805
% used (imported)	49%	48%	40%	31%	30%

Vehicles licensed for the first time December and Year 2023