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Vehicles licensed for the first time March 2023

Number of new diesel cars licensed for the first time continues to decrease

Online ISSN: 2009-5678

CSO statistical publication, 12 April 2023, 11am

Key Findings

The number of new cars licensed in March 2023 increased by 3,910 vehicles (33%) compared with March 2022.
In the first three months of 2023, 16% of all new cars licensed for the first time were electric compared with 13% in the same period in 2022.
Slightly over one fifth (22%) of new private cars licensed in the first three months of 2023 were diesel compared with over a quarter (26%) in the same period in 2022.
The number of used cars licensed in March 2023 increased by 16% compared with March 2022 (4,529 versus 3,902).
There were 4,395 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in the first three months of 2023, compared with 4,631 in first three months of 2022, a fall of 5%.
Toyota (2,037) was the most popular make of new private car licensed in March 2023.

Statistician's Comment

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (12 April 2023) published Vehicles licensed for the first time for March 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 39% from 5,388 in the first three months of 2022 to 7,513 in the same period of 2023. In the first three months of 2023, 16,292 new cars licensed were petrol cars compared with 10,981 in the same period in 2022, an increase of 48%. At the same time, new diesel cars licensed have decreased by 5% in the same period.

Used private cars

There were 4,395 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in the first three months of 2023, compared with 4,631 in the first three months of 2022, a fall of 5%. The total number of used vehicles licensed in the first three months of 2023 was up 4% compared with the same period in 2022. (See Table 1)

Most popular car brands

Data also shows that Toyota (2,037) was the most popular make of new private car licensed in March 2023, followed by Skoda (1,633), Volkswagen (1,622), Kia (1,197) and Dacia (1,124). Together, these five makes represent just under a half (48%) of all new private cars licensed in March 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
	March				January - March
	2022	2023	Change		2022	2023	Change
New private cars	11,872	15,782	3,910	33%	41,329	45,853	4,524	11%
New goods vehicles	2,410	2,870	460	19%	6,855	7,721	866	13%
New other vehicles	1,303	1,527	224	17%	3,745	4,147	402	11%
Total new vehicles	15,585	20,179	4,594	29%	51,929	57,721	5,792	11%

Used private cars	3,902	4,529	627	16%	11,517	11,877	360	3%
Used goods vehicles	747	869	122	16%	2,098	2,187	89	4%
Used other vehicles	910	1,097	187	21%	2,541	2,668	127	5%
Total used vehicles	5,559	6,495	936	17%	16,156	16,732	576	4%

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

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

	Most popular makes of new cars, March 2023
Toyota	13
Skoda	10
Volkswagen	10
Kia	8
Dacia	7
Other	52

	Most popular makes of new cars, March 2022
Toyota	18
Skoda	7
Volkswagen	7
Kia	9
Dacia	2
Other	57

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

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

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

X-axis label	Unadjusted data	Adjusted data	Trend
March 2018	16088	10001	10125
April 2018	11557	9655	10110
May 2018	9362	10137	10028
June 2018	3716	9948	9900
July 2018	20743	10470	9720
August 2018	7681	9438	9484
September 2018	4397	8904	9203
October 2018	2874	7738	8939
November 2018	1647	8881	8805
December 2018	778	10238	8853
January 2019	22279	9054	9074
February 2019	14178	9112	9398
March 2019	14404	9904	9713
April 2019	13794	10509	9931
May 2019	9126	9793	9972
June 2019	3858	10156	9798
July 2019	18741	9286	9460
August 2019	7202	9043	9070
September 2019	4104	7519	8727
October 2019	3214	8183	8492
November 2019	1676	8319	8365
December 2019	729	8489	8342
January 2020	20665	8557	8413
February 2020	13263	8418	8529
March 2020	10239	6863	7042
April 2020	1338	1078	1067
May 2020	1490	1687	2701
June 2020	2189	5235	5254
July 2020	15329	7814	7900
August 2020	7360	9042	9228
September 2020	5747	9133	9557
October 2020	4189	10122	9964
November 2020	1468	6626	10342
December 2020	1032	10996	10587
January 2021	16948	7635	7596
February 2021	11672	7519	7562
March 2021	10672	6707	7523
April 2021	8214	7092	7542
May 2021	7337	8548	7635
June 2021	4980	11498	7771
July 2021	20232	10921	7916
August 2021	8563	9585	8018
September 2021	6354	9197	8087
October 2021	3882	8752	8127
November 2021	2167	8914	8157
December 2021	832	8566	8181
January 2022	15814	7505	8194
February 2022	13643	8853	8188
March 2022	11872	7918	8167
April 2022	10045	8443	8189
May 2022	7120	8144	8305
June 2022	3774	8714	8532
July 2022	15078	8412	8827
August 2022	8942	9277	9128
September 2022	7315	9746	9338
October 2022	4527	9668	9405
November 2022	2353	9301	9370
December 2022	866	9179	9294
January 2023	16787	7956
February 2023	13284	8851
March 2023	15782	9859

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	1
1-2 years old	18	18	11	7	7
3-5 years old	50	56	56	36	30
6-9 years old	26	20	25	42	41
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 October 2022 to March 2023. In March 2023, electric cars were 16% 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	March			January - March
Taxation Class	2021	2022	2023	2021	2022	2023
New vehicles
New Private Cars	10,672	11,872	15,782	39,292	41,329	45,853
New Goods Vehicles	2,974	2,410	2,870	6,852	6,855	7,721
New Tractors	297	244	284	795	728	811
New Motor Cycles	162	310	288	410	878	803
New Exempt Vehicles	633	601	726	1,921	1,730	1,991
New Other	145	148	229	340	409	542
Total New Vehicles	14,883	15,585	20,179	49,610	51,929	57,721

Used (imported) vehicles
Used private cars	6,590	3,902	4,529	21,395	11,517	11,877
Used goods vehicles	1,096	747	869	3,176	2,098	2,187
Used tractors	355	203	266	1,088	629	692
Used motorcycles	366	259	295	968	650	668
Used other vehicles	605	448	536	1,748	1,262	1,308
Total used vehicles	9,012	5,559	6,495	28,375	16,156	16,732

Total all vehicles	23,895	21,144	26,674	77,985	68,085	74,453

Table 3A: Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO₂ emission band and fuel type, March 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	1,940	352	2,930	1,210	32	1,336	1	7,801
B	3,397	1,992	0	590	334	0	0	6,313
C	378	934	0	9	2	0	0	1,323
D	18	139	0	1	0	0	0	158
E	10	16	0	0	1	0	0	27
F	6	28	0	1	0	0	0	35
G	13	34	0	0	0	0	0	47
Not available	5	73	0	0	0	0	0	78
Total	5,767	3,568	2,930	1,811	369	1,336	1	15,782

Table 3B: Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO₂ emission band and fuel type, January-March 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	5,287	985	7,513	4,724	143	3,788	2	22,442
B	9,702	6,188	0	2,236	992	0	0	19,118
C	1,136	2,252	0	47	4	3	0	3,442
D	76	323	0	19	3	1	0	422
E	34	43	0	0	10	0	0	87
F	15	72	0	2	0	0	0	89
G	31	45	0	0	0	0	0	76
Not available	11	162	0	4	0	0	0	177
Total	16,292	10,070	7,513	7,032	1,152	3,792	2	45,853

Table 4: Number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time by make, March 2023
Make	March			January - March
Make	New	Used (imported)	Total	New	Used (imported)	Total
Audi	849	431	1,280	2,185	1,140	3,325
BMW	628	442	1,070	1,819	1,120	2,939
Citroen	81	46	127	443	127	570
Dacia	1,124	17	1,141	2,068	41	2,109
Fiat	71	37	108	175	93	268
Ford	815	264	1,079	2,590	744	3,334
Honda	29	260	289	100	686	786
Hyundai	1,015	131	1,146	5,134	325	5,459
Jaguar	20	19	39	45	58	103
Kia	1,197	83	1,280	3,411	195	3,606
Land Rover	71	55	126	248	180	428
Lexus	76	29	105	233	82	315
Mazda	145	83	228	476	250	726
Mercedes Benz	363	223	586	1,309	535	1,844
Mini	86	22	108	295	67	362
Mitsubishi	0	68	68	0	162	162
Nissan	748	398	1,146	1,708	1,063	2,771
Opel	269	0	269	1,043	0	1,043
Peugeot	501	125	626	1,530	351	1,881
Renault	513	73	586	1,514	206	1,720
Seat	266	62	328	859	132	991
Skoda	1,633	119	1,752	3,775	302	4,077
Ssangyong	2	0	2	7	1	8
Subaru	5	2	7	16	8	24
Suzuki	244	72	316	845	181	1,026
Tesla	570	11	581	575	19	594
Toyota	2,037	374	2,411	7,131	1,056	8,187
Vauxhall	0	97	97	1	291	292
Volkswagen	1,622	819	2,441	4,371	2,069	6,440
Volvo	312	86	398	795	231	1,026
Other	490	81	571	1,152	162	1,314
Total	15,782	4,529	20,311	45,853	11,877	57,730
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	March 2022	February 2023	March 2023	Monthly % change
New vehicles
New private cars	7,918	8,851	9,859	11%
New goods vehicles	1,938	1,914	2,243	17%
New tractors	182	201	211	5%
New motor cycles	243	226	226	0%
New exempt vehicles	429	482	526	9%
New other	115	155	187	21%
Total new vehicles	10,825	11,829	13,252	12%

Used (imported) vehicles
Used private cars	3,565	3,907	4,137	6%
Used goods vehicles	688	676	792	17%
Used tractors	184	212	240	13%
Used motorcycles	262	276	298	8%
Used other vehicles	434	448	519	16%
Total used vehicles	5,133	5,519	5,986	8%

Total all vehicles	15,958	17,348	19,238	11%

Vehicles licensed for the first time March 2023