The number of new diesel cars licensed jumps nearly 27%

In total, 20,861 new cars were licensed during the first month of the year. 

The number of new cars licensed during January rose by 24% compared to the same period last year with new diesel cars seeing the largest increase of any category with an increase of over 900.

According to the latest data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), 20,861 new private cars were licensed during January - a traditionally busy period for dealers with the introduction of the 2024 licence plate - an increase from 16,787 last year.

Of these new cars, 6,119 were petrol cars, compared to 5,819 in January 2023. There were 4,337 new diesel cars licensed last month, an increase of 910 year-on-year or 26.6%. 

The number of new electric cars licensed increased by 12% from 2,531 to 2,829.

Data shows that Toyota was the most popular car brand in January with 4,113 new cars licensed, followed by Hyundai at 2,699 and Skoda at 1,753.

Kia and Volkswagen rounded out the top five with 1,567 and 1,483 new cars licensed respectively..

Together, these five makes represent 56% of all new private cars licensed during the month.

The most popular brand of new electric car was the Hyundai Kona, with 320 licensed, followed by Volkswagen ID.4 with 215 licensed and the MG4 with 136 licensed.

In addition, there were 4,600 used private cars licensed during the month, an increase of 3,572 while the number of imports licensed declined from 1,280 in January 2023 to 1,276 last month.