New figures from the Central Statistics Office show the number of new cars licensed in Ireland in October  fell by 307 vehicles (7.3%) compared with October 2020.

However the figure increased by 688 vehicles when compared with the same month in 2019.

A total of 3,882 new private cars were licensed in October 2021, down from 4,189 in October 2020. Today’s figures also compare with 3,214 new private cars licensed in October 2019.

Meanwhile, the number of used (imported) private cars licensed also fell from 9,543 in October 2020 to 4,506 in October 2021. This compares with 10,941 used (imported) private cars licensed in October 2019.

For the first ten months of 2021, a total of 98,854 new private cars were licensed, an increase of 20.8% compared with the same time last year.

But the CSO said the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic over the first 10 months of 2021 is still visible as figures remain 11% lower compared to the same 10 months in 2019.

Electric vehicles

The CSO figures reveal that electric or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) continued to grow in popularity last month, now making up  15.7% of all new cars licensed for the first time in the first ten months of 2021 compared to 7.4% during the same time in 2020.

This means that out of all new private cars, the share of new electric and plug-in-hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) has more than doubled.

The CSO said the share of electric-only cars licensed increased from 4.6% in the first ten months of 2020 to 8.2% in 2021.

At the same time the diesel fueled share of new private cars licensed decreased. In the first ten months of 2021, 33.9% of all new private cars licensed were diesel, compared with 42.9% in the same period for 2020.

Volkswagen was the most popular make of new private car licensed in October followed by Skoda, Toyota, Ford and Hyundai.

Together these five brands represent 42.5% of all new private cars licensed in October of this year, the CSO said.