New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that new car sales in September continued to rise above both 2020 and 2019 levels.
The CSO said the number of new cars licensed in September of this year rose by 607 (10.6%) compared with September 2020 and by 2,250 vehicles compared with September 2019.
In the first nine months of 2021, a total of 94,972 new private cars were licensed, an increase of 22% compared with the same time last year.
But the CSO said the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic over the first nine months of the year was still visible as the figures remain 12% lower compared to the first nine months of 2019.
Meanwhile, the number of used (imported) private cars licensed increased in the first nine months of the year rose by 7% compared with the same time in 2020 but are still 30% lower when compared to 2019.
Today's figures show that electric cars continued to grow in popularity as 15% of all new cars licensed for the first time were electric or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) compared to 7% in the first nine months of 2020.
The CSO said that in the first nine months of this year, 34.1% of all new private cars licensed were diesel, compared with 43% the same time in 2020.
Of new private cars licensed in the same period, 81.4% were in the A/B CO2 emissions bands, it added.
Volkswagen was the most popular make of new private car licensed in September followed by Toyota, Hyundai, Skoda and Kia.
The CSO said that together these five makes represent 45% of all new private cars licensed in September.
The CSO noted that a vehicle is registered when the vehicle registration tax due on the vehicle is paid to the Revenue Commissioners. Revenue then issue a registration number for the vehicle.
A vehicle is licensed when the annual car tax due on the vehicle is paid for the first time.
