New Central Statistics Office figures show that the number of new cars licensed in April of this year jumped by 514% on those licensed in April 2020.
But the figures still represent a 41% decrease on the numbers of new cars licensed in April 2019, the CSO added.
The CSO said the number of new cars licensed for the first time in April amounted to 8,214, a jump of 514% compared with the figure of 1,338 in April last year as the first Covid-19 lockdown forced car dealerships to close.
Meanwhile, the number of used (imported) private cars licensed rose by 372.4% to compared with the same month in 2020, increasing from 1,321 to 6,241.
However, the number of used (imported) private cars licensed is still 2,487 vehicles lower in April 2021 than in April 2019, the CSO noted.
Looking at the first four months of 2021, the CSO said that a total of 47,506 new private cars were licensed, an increase of 4.4% compared with the same time last year.
The number of used (imported) private cars licensed increased by 27.5% compared with the same month in 2020.
Meanwhile, electric and hybrid cars continue to grow in popularity.
The combined number of new electric and hybrid cars licensed in the first four months of 2021 was 79% greater than those licensed in the same time in 2020.
The CSO said that 32.1% of all new cars licensed in the first four months of 2021 were electric and hybrid cars, compared with 18.7% of new cars licensed in the first four months of 2020.
There was also an increase of 243.6% in the number of new goods vehicles licensed in April of this year compared to April last year, bringing the total to 2,536.
However, there was only an increase of 8.7% when compared with April 2019, the CSO said.
Today's figures show that Volkswagen was the most popular make of new private car licensed followed by Toyota, Hyundai, Skoda and Ford.
Together these five makes represent 47.2% of all new private cars licensed in April 2021.
In the first four months of 2021, 36.6% of all new private cars licensed were diesel, compared with 43.8% the same time for 2020.
