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Vehicles licensed for the first time September 2022

Number of used private cars licensed in first nine months of 2022 is down 35% compared with the same period in 2021

Online ISSN: 2009-5678

CSO statistical publication, 11 October 2022, 11am

Key Findings

The number of new cars licensed in September 2022 rose by 961 (15%) vehicles compared with September 2021.
In the first nine months of 2022, 22% of all new cars licensed for the first time were electric or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) compared with 15% in the same period in 2021.
There was a fall of 13% in the number of used private cars licensed in September 2022 compared with September 2021.
In the first nine months of 2022, 27% of new private cars licensed were diesel, compared with 34% in the same period in 2021.
The number of used cars licensed in the first nine months of 2022 decreased by 35% compared with the same period in 2021 (36,140 versus 55,827).
There were 12,763 used (imported) diesel private cars licensed in the first nine months of 2022, compared with 31,304 in the same period in 2021, a fall of 59%.
Volkswagen (1,244) was the most popular make of new private cars licensed in September 2022.

Statistician's Comment

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (11 October 2022) published Vehicles licensed for the first time for September 2022.

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 81% from 7,470 in the first nine months of 2021 to 13,506 in 2022. At the same time, the number of new diesel cars is decreasing. For the first nine months of 2022, 25,113 new cars licensed were diesel cars compared with 32,341 in the same period in 2021.

There were 36,140 used private cars licensed in the first nine months of 2022 compared with 55,827 in the same period in 2021. The total number of used vehicles licensed in the first nine months of 2022 was down 33% compared with the same period in 2021. (See table 1)

Data also shows that Volkswagen (1,244) was the most popular make of new private car licensed in September, followed by Kia (573), Hyundai (526), Skoda (504), and Tesla (502). Together, these five makes represent almost half (46%) of all new private cars licensed in September 2022. (See table 4)”

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.

Tables and Graphs

Figure 1 shows data on the number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time in September 2018 to 2022.

Table 1: Number of vehicles licensed for the first time
	September				January - September
	2021	2022	Change		2021	2022	Change
New private cars	6,354	7,315	961	15%	94,972	93,603	-1,369	-1%
New goods vehicles	3,109	2,450	-659	-21%	23,439	18,838	-4,601	-20%
New other vehicles	1,066	1,023	-43	-4%	10,501	10,631	130	1%
Total new vehicles	10,529	10,788	259	2%	128,912	123,072	-5,840	-5%

Used private cars	5,056	4,378	-678	-13%	55,827	36,140	-19,687	-35%
Used goods vehicles	818	669	-149	-18%	8,459	6,021	-2,438	-29%
Used other vehicles	1,055	915	-140	-13%	10,808	8,503	-2,305	-21%
Total used vehicles	6,929	5,962	-967	-14%	75,094	50,664	-24,430	-33%

Open in Excel: Vehicles licensed for the first time September 2022 Table 1 (XLS 11KB)

Visit Table TEM01 on PxStat

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

	Most popular makes of new cars, September 2022
Volkswagen	17
Kia	8
Hyundai	7
Skoda	7
Tesla	7
Other	54

	Most popular makes of new cars, September 2021
Volkswagen	11
Kia	7
Hyundai	9
Skoda	7
Tesla	2
Other	64

Table 3A: Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO2 emission band and fuel type, September 2022

Table 3B Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO2 emission band and fuel type, January-September 2022

Table 4 Number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time by make, September 2022

X-axis label	Unadjusted data	Adjusted data	Trend
September 2017	4828	9956	9689
October 2017	3255	9433	9610
November 2017	1594	9320	9617
December 2017	601	9261	9708
January 2018	25813	10279	9853
February 2018	16501	10408	10013
March 2018	16088	10052	10122
April 2018	11557	9853	10141
May 2018	9362	10117	10062
June 2018	3716	9903	9919
July 2018	20743	10086	9734
August 2018	7681	9401	9524
September 2018	4397	9160	9278
October 2018	2874	7852	9048
November 2018	1647	8981	8924
December 2018	778	11016	8951
January 2019	22279	9116	9131
February 2019	14178	8993	9395
March 2019	14404	10061	9648
April 2019	13794	10805	9796
May 2019	9126	9738	9762
June 2019	3858	9925	9539
July 2019	18741	8783	9200
August 2019	7202	9090	8873
September 2019	4104	7725	8644
October 2019	3214	8411	8545
November 2019	1676	8601	8521
December 2019	729	8743	8532
January 2020	20665	8800	8541
February 2020	13263	8289	8548
March 2020	10239	6894	7006
April 2020	1338	1107	1139
May 2020	1490	1703	2416
June 2020	2189	4972	4418
July 2020	15329	7313	6939
August 2020	7360	9152	9370
September 2020	5747	9338	10966
October 2020	4189	10804	11232
November 2020	1468	6798	10819
December 2020	1032	11053	10489
January 2021	16948	8160	10194
February 2021	11672	7112	9930
March 2021	10672	6815	9700
April 2021	8214	7140	9534
May 2021	7337	8519	9441
June 2021	4980	10937	9409
July 2021	20232	10454	9391
August 2021	8563	9650	9320
September 2021	6354	9397	9171
October 2021	3882	9512	8943
November 2021	2167	9095	8703
December 2021	832	8591	8480
January 2022	15814	7981	8290
February 2022	13643	8192	8144
March 2022	11872	8238	8062
April 2022	10045	8385	8080
May 2022	7120	8009	8221
June 2022	3774	8406	8487
July 2022	15078	8172
August 2022	8942	9358
September 2022	7315	9984

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

X-axis label	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022 to date
<1 year old	1.9	1.7	1.6	1.1	0.7
1-2 years old	18.3	17.6	17.7	11.4	6.6
3-5 years old	50.8	50.3	56.3	56	35.6
6-9 years old	24.4	25.6	19.8	24.9	43.1
Over 10 years old	4.6	4.8	4.7	6.6	14

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

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Table 2: Number of vehicles licensed for the first time classified by taxation class
Taxation Class	September			January - September
Taxation Class	2020	2021	2022	2020	2021	2022
New vehicles
New Private Cars	5,747	6,354	7,315	77,620	94,972	93,603
New Goods Vehicles	2,421	3,109	2,450	16,738	23,439	18,838
New Tractors	177	193	186	1,863	2,111	2,031
New Motor Cycles	163	240	217	1,461	1,964	2,519
New Exempt Vehicles	454	448	507	4,966	5,095	4,845
New Other	120	185	113	937	1,331	1,236
Total New Vehicles	9,082	10,529	10,788	103,585	128,912	123,072

Used (imported) vehicles
Used private cars	9,300	5,056	4,378	52,188	55,827	36,140
Used goods vehicles	1,315	818	669	7,901	8,459	6,021
Used tractors	282	222	157	1,766	2,723	1,808
Used motorcycles	451	274	259	2,432	2,865	2,448
Used other vehicles	620	559	499	3,441	5,220	4,247
Total used vehicles	11,968	6,929	5,962	67,728	75,094	50,664

Total all vehicles	21,050	17,458	16,750	171,313	204,006	173,736

Table 3A: Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO₂ emission band and fuel type, September 2022
Band	Fuel Type							Total
Band	Petrol	Diesel	Electric	Petrol & electric hybrid	Diesel & electric hybrid	Petrol or Diesel plug-in electric hybrid	Other	Total
A	609	206	1,888	408	13	504	1	3,629
B	1,603	1,112	0	245	36	0	6	3,002
C	226	268	0	12	0	2	0	508
D	13	53	0	10	0	0	0	76
E	5	19	0	0	1	0	0	25
F	0	9	0	0	0	0	0	9
G	13	6	0	0	0	0	0	19
Not available	4	43	0	0	0	0	0	47
Total	2,473	1,716	1,888	675	50	506	7	7,315

Table 3B: Number of new private cars licensed for the first time by CO₂ emission band and fuel type, January-September 2022
Band	Fuel Type							Total
Band	Petrol	Diesel	Electric	Petrol & electric hybrid	Diesel & electric hybrid	Petrol or Diesel plug-in electric hybrid	Other	Total
A	6,761	2,868	13,506	12,648	173	6,866	408	43,230
B	17,483	15,981	0	5,500	397	48	290	39,699
C	3,226	4,516	0	239	215	91	9	8,296
D	262	790	0	81	26	0	0	1,159
E	62	355	0	26	39	0	0	482
F	29	156	0	6	1	0	0	192
G	70	35	0	3	0	0	0	108
Not available	22	412	0	2	1	0	0	437
Total	27,915	25,113	13,506	18,505	852	7,005	707	93,603

Table 4: Number of new and used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time by make, September 2022
Make	September			January - September
Make	New	Used (imported)	Total	New	Used (imported)	Total
Audi	308	363	671	3,756	3,191	6,947
BMW	205	379	584	3,644	3,487	7,131
Citroen	130	48	178	1,307	396	1,703
Dacia	269	14	283	2,820	99	2,919
Fiat	34	31	65	324	373	697
Ford	351	274	625	4,447	2,244	6,691
Honda	15	310	325	326	2,322	2,648
Hyundai	526	87	613	11,332	990	12,322
Jaguar	15	16	31	149	213	362
Kia	573	59	632	7,176	540	7,716
Land Rover	15	52	67	421	393	814
Lexus	43	25	68	400	315	715
Mazda	81	91	172	981	583	1,564
Mercedes Benz	253	205	458	3,265	1,753	5,018
Mini	57	29	86	520	256	776
Mitsubishi	1	53	54	4	451	455
Nissan	244	415	659	3,769	2,981	6,750
Opel	372	1	373	2,788	7	2,795
Peugeot	294	118	412	4,265	890	5,155
Renault	316	60	376	3,432	562	3,994
Seat	104	47	151	1,517	411	1,928
Skoda	504	84	588	6,593	744	7,337
Ssangyong	5	3	8	94	8	102
Subaru	1	1	2	12	43	55
Suzuki	122	86	208	1,141	600	1,741
Tesla	502	0	502	1,200	22	1,222
Toyota	447	493	940	14,786	3,842	18,628
Vauxhall	0	94	94	0	979	979
Volkswagen	1,244	847	2,091	10,068	6,522	16,590
Volvo	150	47	197	1,557	576	2,133
z. Other	134	46	180	1,509	347	1,856
z. Total	7,315	4,378	11,693	93,603	36,140	129,743
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	September 2021	August 2022	September 2022	Monthly % change
New vehicles
New private cars	9,397	9,358	9,984	7%
New goods vehicles	3,421	1,723	2,577	50%
New tractors	242	175	215	23%
New motor cycles	258	246	229	-7%
New exempt vehicles	473	495	511	3%
New other	195	123	120	-2%
Total new vehicles	13,986	12,120	13,636	13%

Used (imported) vehicles
Used private cars	4,702	4,159	4,082	-2%
Used goods vehicles	804	640	658	3%
Used tractors	262	225	183	-19%
Used motorcycles	265	242	233	-4%
Used other vehicles	513	455	454	0%
Total used vehicles	6,546	5,721	5,610	-2%

Total all vehicles	20,532	17,841	19,246	8%

Vehicles licensed for the first time September 2022