Number of new private cars licensed last month up 30.3%

The number of new private cars licensed last month was up 30.3 per cent compared with October 2019, as electric and hybrid cars continued to grow in popularity, the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show.

The number of new cars licensed was 4,189, while the number of used (imported) private cars licensed decreased by 12.8 per cent compared with the same period in 2019.

In the first ten months of 2020, a total of 81,809 new private cars were licensed, which was a decrease of 26.2 per cent compared with the same period last year.

The number of used private cars licensed fell by 32.2 per cent compared with the same period in 2019.

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Electric and hybrid cars continued to grow in popularity, accounting for 21.8 per cent of new private cars licensed, compared with 13.6 per cent in the same period in 2019.

The number of new hybrid and new electric cars licensed between January and October grew by 1,644 (15.3 per cent) and 625 (20 per cent) respectively despite the overall drop in new cars licensed for the period.

The licensing figures also show that Volkswagen (574) was the most popular make of new private car licensed followed by Ford (382), Skoda (350), Toyota (291) and Peugeot (247).

Together these five makes represented 44 per cent of all new private cars licensed in October.

In the first ten months of 2020, 42.9 per cent of all new private cars licensed were diesel, compared with 46.9 per cent in the same period for 2019. Of new private cars licensed in the same period, 94.5 per cent were in the A/B CO2 emissions bands.

There was an increase of 896 (55.4 per cent) in the number of new goods vehicles licensed in October 2020 bringing the total licensed for the first ten months of the year to 19,251.

In 2020 to date, the majority (56.2 per cent) of imported private cars licensed were three to five years old while 3,008 (4.9 per cent) were ten or more years old.

There were 35,067 new diesel private cars licensed in the first ten months of 2020, compared with 52,046 in the same period in 2019. For used diesel private cars, the total licensed was 40,408 in the first ten months of 2020. This compares with 65,670 in the same period last year.

CSO statistician Olive Loughnane said the drop in the year-to-date figure was “due to the very low numbers licensed during the peak of the Covid-19 crisis”.

“The number of used cars licensed in October declined by 12.8 per cent but decreases in the number of used cars licensed were evident prior to the onset of the Covid-19 crisis,” she added.