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Vehicles licensed for the first time February 2023

Electric cars accounted for 15% of all new cars licensed this year

Online ISSN: 2009-5678

CSO statistical publication, 14 March 2023, 11am

Key Findings

The number of new cars licensed in February 2023 fell by 359 vehicles (-3%) compared with February 2022.
In the first two months of 2023, 15% of all new cars licensed for the first time were electric compared with 12% in the same period in 2022.
Slightly more than one-fifth (22%) of new private cars licensed in the first two months of 2023 were diesel compared with almost a quarter (24%) in the same period in 2022.
The number of used cars licensed in the first two months of 2023 decreased by 4% compared with the same period in 2022 (7,348 versus 7,615).
There were 2,788 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in the first two months of 2023, compared with 3,126 in first two months of 2022, a fall of 10%.
Toyota (1,801) was the most popular make of new private car licensed in February 2023.

Statistician's Comment

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (14 March 2023) published Vehicles licensed for the first time for February 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 risen by 26% from 3,642 in the first two months of 2022 to 4,583 in the same period in 2023. In January and February of 2023, 10,525 new cars licensed were petrol cars compared with 7,886 in the same period in 2022, an increase of 10%. At the same time, new diesel cars licensed have decreased by 10% in the same period.

Used Private Cars

There were 2,788 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in the first two months of 2023, compared with 3,126 in the same two months of 2022, a fall of 11%. The total number of used vehicles licensed in January and February of 2023 was down 3% compared with the same period in 2022. (See table 1)

Most Popular Car Brands

Data also shows that Toyota (1,801) was the most popular make of new private car licensed in February 2023, followed by Hyundai (1,762), Volkswagen (1,250), Kia (1,061) and Skoda (866). Together, these five makes represent just over half (51%) of all new private cars licensed in February 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.

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.

Table 1: Number of vehicles licensed for the first time
	February				January - February
	2022	2023	Change		2022	2023	Change
New private cars	13,643	13,284	-359	-3%	29,457	30,071	614	2%
New goods vehicles	2,717	2,659	-58	-2%	4,445	4,851	406	9%
New other vehicles	1,278	1,296	18	1%	2,442	2,620	178	7%
Total new vehicles	17,638	17,239	-399	-2%	36,344	37,542	1,198	3%

Used private cars	3,929	3,986	57	1%	7,615	7,348	-267	-4%
Used goods vehicles	711	684	-27	-4%	1,351	1,318	-33	-2%
Used other vehicles	884	867	-17	-2%	1,631	1,571	-60	-4%
Total used vehicles	5,524	5,537	13	0%	10,597	10,237	-360	-3%

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

Visit Table TEM01 on PxStat

Tables and Graphs

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

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

	Most popular makes of new cars, February 2023
Toyota	14
Hyundai	13
Volkswagen	9
Kia	8
Skoda	7
Other	49

	Most popular makes of new cars February 2022
Toyota	15
Hyundai	15
Volkswagen	6
Kia	9
Skoda	8
Other	47

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

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

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

X-axis label	Unadjusted data	Adjusted data	Trend
February 2018	16501	10404	10065
March 2018	16088	10019	10124
April 2018	11557	9639	10114
May 2018	9362	10134	10036
June 2018	3716	9967	9912
July 2018	20743	10458	9734
August 2018	7681	9449	9493
September 2018	4397	8884	9200
October 2018	2874	7720	8922
November 2018	1647	8876	8776
December 2018	778	10619	8822
January 2019	22279	9037	9052
February 2019	14178	9122	9392
March 2019	14404	9924	9724
April 2019	13794	10450	9953
May 2019	9126	9832	9995
June 2019	3858	10162	9809
July 2019	18741	9276	9453
August 2019	7202	9025	9050
September 2019	4104	7497	8705
October 2019	3214	8131	8483
November 2019	1676	8295	8373
December 2019	729	8581	8366
January 2020	20665	8612	8442
February 2020	13263	8429	8553
March 2020	10239	6886	7037
April 2020	1338	1068	1069
May 2020	1490	1694	2700
June 2020	2189	5242	5245
July 2020	15329	7793	7874
August 2020	7360	9023	9185
September 2020	5747	9076	9499
October 2020	4189	10036	9887
November 2020	1468	6559	10259
December 2020	1032	10886	10525
January 2021	16948	7741	7605
February 2021	11672	7429	7615
March 2021	10672	6841	7613
April 2021	8214	6970	7653
May 2021	7337	8593	7744
June 2021	4980	11514	7857
July 2021	20232	10856	7964
August 2021	8563	9564	8021
September 2021	6354	9154	8030
October 2021	3882	8653	8016
November 2021	2167	8743	8006
December 2021	832	8353	8011
January 2022	15814	7676	8036
February 2022	13643	8510	8070
March 2022	11872	8232	8110
April 2022	10045	8326	8193
May 2022	7120	8174	8356
June 2022	3774	8731	8603
July 2022	15078	8341	8898
August 2022	8942	9288	9168
September 2022	7315	9719	9321
October 2022	4527	9541	9292
November 2022	2353	9069	9093
December 2022	866	8815
January 2023	16787	8172
February 2023	13284	8224

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

X-axis label	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023 to date
<1 year old	2	2	1	1	0
1-2 years old	18	18	11	7	6
3-5 years old	50	56	56	36	32
6-9 years old	26	20	25	42	42
Over 10 years old	5	5	7	14	21

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

Figure 6 shows the share of new electric cars licensed from September 2022 to February 2023. In February 2023, electric cars were 15% 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 electic 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	February			January - February
Taxation Class	2021	2022	2023	2021	2022	2023
New vehicles
New Private Cars	11,672	13,643	13,284	28,620	29,457	30,071
New Goods Vehicles	2,349	2,717	2,659	3,878	4,445	4,851
New Tractors	240	232	231	498	484	527
New Motor Cycles	112	294	233	248	568	515
New Exempt Vehicles	713	611	663	1,288	1,129	1,265
New Other	123	141	169	195	261	313
Total New Vehicles	15,209	17,638	17,239	34,727	36,344	37,542

Used (imported) vehicles
Used private cars	6,679	3,929	3,986	14,805	7,615	7,348
Used goods vehicles	1,120	711	684	2,080	1,351	1,318
Used tractors	366	233	233	733	426	426
Used motorcycles	301	199	220	602	391	373
Used other vehicles	607	452	414	1,143	814	772
Total used vehicles	9,073	5,524	5,537	19,363	10,597	10,237

Total all vehicles	24,282	23,162	22,776	54,090	46,941	47,779

Table 3A: Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO₂ emission band and fuel type, February 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	1,503	309	2,052	1,048	44	1,161	1	6,118
B	2,853	1,961	0	809	356	0	0	5,979
C	301	622	0	14	0	3	0	940
D	26	92	0	8	1	1	0	128
E	12	15	0	0	1	0	0	28
F	3	17	0	0	0	0	0	20
G	8	5	0	0	0	0	0	13
Not available	0	54	0	4	0	0	0	58
Total	4,706	3,075	2,052	1,883	402	1,165	1	13,284

Table 3B: Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO₂ emission band and fuel type, January-February 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	3,347	633	4,583	3,514	111	2,452	1	14,641
B	6,305	4,196	0	1,646	658	0	0	12,805
C	758	1,318	0	38	2	3	0	2,119
D	58	184	0	18	3	1	0	264
E	24	27	0	0	9	0	0	60
F	9	44	0	1	0	0	0	54
G	18	11	0	0	0	0	0	29
Not available	6	89	0	4	0	0	0	99
Total	10,525	6,502	4,583	5,221	783	2,456	1	30,071

Table 4: Number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time by make, February 2023
Make	February			January - February
Make	New	Used (imported)	Total	New	Used (imported)	Total
Audi	596	413	1,009	1,336	709	2,045
BMW	611	383	994	1,191	678	1,869
Citroen	170	38	208	362	81	443
Dacia	518	18	536	944	24	968
Fiat	74	25	99	104	56	160
Ford	756	252	1,008	1,775	480	2,255
Honda	25	242	267	71	426	497
Hyundai	1,762	108	1,870	4,119	194	4,313
Jaguar	7	20	27	25	39	64
Kia	1,061	57	1,118	2,214	112	2,326
Land Rover	87	72	159	177	125	302
Lexus	79	27	106	157	53	210
Mazda	154	94	248	331	167	498
Mercedes Benz	345	155	500	946	312	1,258
Mini	101	24	125	209	45	254
Mitsubishi	0	55	55	0	94	94
Nissan	390	341	731	960	665	1,625
Opel	507	0	507	774	0	774
Peugeot	592	121	713	1,029	226	1,255
Renault	501	75	576	1,001	133	1,134
Seat	293	41	334	593	70	663
Skoda	866	103	969	2,142	183	2,325
Ssangyong	2	1	3	5	1	6
Subaru	6	6	12	11	6	17
Suzuki	178	60	238	601	109	710
Tesla	3	3	6	5	8	13
Toyota	1,801	369	2,170	5,094	682	5,776
Vauxhall	1	94	95	1	194	195
Volkswagen	1,250	672	1,922	2,749	1,250	3,999
Volvo	233	66	299	483	145	628
Other	315	51	366	662	81	743
Total	13,284	3,986	17,270	30,071	7,348	37,419
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	February 2022	January 2023	February 2023	Monthly % change
New vehicles
New private cars	8,510	8,172	8,224	1%
New goods vehicles	1,998	2,066	1,979	-4%
New tractors	201	211	200	-5%
New motor cycles	286	236	227	-4%
New exempt vehicles	437	483	480	-1%
New other	128	142	151	6%
Total new vehicles	11,560	11,310	11,261	0%

Used (imported) vehicles
Used private cars	3,765	3,645	3,821	5%
Used goods vehicles	702	669	673	1%
Used tractors	209	190	206	8%
Used motorcycles	252	204	277	36%
Used other vehicles	477	434	434	0%
Total used vehicles	5,405	5,142	5,411	5%

Total all vehicles	16,965	16,452	16,672	1%

Vehicles licensed for the first time February 2023