The latest Central Statistics Office figures show that the number of new cars licensed for the first time in October jumped by 30.3% to 4,189 from 3,214 the same time last year.
But the CSO said the number of new cars licensed in the first ten months of this year fell by 26.2% to 81,809 from 110,900 the same time last year.
This was due to the very low numbers of cars licensed during the peak of the Covid-19 crisis earlier this year.
Today's figures also show that more than one in five of all new cars licensed for the first time in October were electric or hybrid.
The CSO noted that the combined number of new electric and hybrid cars licensed in the first 10 months of 2020 was 12.5% greater than those licensed in all of last year - 16,130 compared to 14,343.
Meanwhile, the number of used or imported private cars licensed in October slowed down by 12.8% compared with the same month in 2019 - falling to 9,543 from 10,941.
For the year so far, the number of used private cars licensed fell by 32.2% compared with the same time in 2019.
The CSO said that Volkswagen was the most popular make of new private car licensed last month followed by Ford, Skoda, Toyota and Peugeot. Together these five makes represent 44% of all new private cars licensed in October, it added.
Today's figures also show that in the first ten months of 2020, 42.9% of all new private cars licensed were diesel, compared with 46.9% the same time last year.
Of new private cars licensed in the same period, 94.5% were in the A/B CO2 emissions bands.
The CSO said its monthly licensing figures and the registration figures from SIMI differ due to the different dates on which a vehicle is registered (number plate) and licensed (tax disc).
A vehicle may be registered by a dealership in advance of a sale, and vehicles which are registered in a given month may not be licensed until a later month.
