The number of tractors which were licenced for the first time in 2020 was up marginally on the previous two years, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

A total of 2,190 new tractors were registered in 2020, the CSO states.

This is a slight lift compared to 2019 – which recorded 2,139 new tractors – and 2018, which accounted for 2,042 machines.

This is in stark contrast to other vehicle registrations in 2020, according to the CSO figures, which showed a reduction across the board for all other categories.

A total of 116,514 new vehicles were registered last year – down considerably on the 149,748 vehicles recorded in 2019, and even more so on 2018, which had 157,865 vehicle registrations.

84,309 new cars were registered last year, compared to 113,305 in 2019, and 121,157 in 2018. New goods vehicles, motorcycles, exempt vehicles and ‘other’ vehicles all saw decreased registrations also.

Meanwhile, the same trends applied in the used (imported) vehicle registrations. Some 101,472 used vehicles were registered for the first time in 2020, compared to 137,196 used vehicles and 125,874 used vehicles for 2019 and 2018 respectively.

Once again, used tractors bucked the trend, with 2,648 used tractors registered last year – compared to 2,595 tractors in 2019 and 2,198 in 2018.

Used cars, meanwhile, saw a severe dip – 78,541 used cars were registered in 2020, as opposed to 108,895 and 99,456 cars recorded for 2019 and 2018 respectively.

A total of 217,986 vehicles (between new and imported) were registered for the first time last year, down well on the 286,944 and 283,739 vehicles registered in 2019 and 2018 respectively.

Overall, 4,838 tractors – between new and imported models – were registered in 2020.