So far this year, there have been 2,274 new tractors licenced in Ireland.

New figures published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that last month alone, there were 163 new tractors licenced, compared to 131 in 2020 and 94 in 2019.

These figures are based on the National Vehicle and Driver File compiled by the Department of Transport.

The January to October figure of 2,274 compares to 1,994 during the same period in 2020 and 1,996 in 2019.

Meanwhile, there have been 2,927 used (imported) tractors licenced so far in 2021. There were 2,039 from January to October in 2020, and 2,217 in 2019.

In October alone, there were 204 licenced, compared to a figure of 273 in 2020 and 192 in 2019.

Electric vehicles continue to grow in popularity

In October 2021, 3,882 new private cars were licenced in Ireland, compared with 4,189 in October 2020. This compares with 3,214 new private cars licenced in October 2019.

In addition, the number of used (imported) private cars licenced fell from 9,543 in October 2020 to 4,506 in October 2021. This compares with 10,941 used (imported) private cars licenced in October 2019.

Looking at the first 10 months of 2021, a total of 98,854 new private cars were licenced, an increase of 20.8% compared with the same period last year.

Electric or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles continue to grow in popularity. These vehicles constitute 15.7% of all new cars licenced for the first time in the first 10 months of 2021 compared to 7.4% in the same period in 2020.

This means that out of all new private cars, the share of new electric and plug-in-hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) has more than doubled.

At the same time, the diesel-fueled share of new private cars licenced is decreasing.

In the first 10 months of 2021, 33.9% of all new private cars licenced were diesel, compared with 42.9% in the same period for 2020.

In October, Volkswagen (483) was the most popular make of new private car licenced, followed by Skoda (343), Toyota (316), Ford (264) and Hyundai (243).