Why one in four Irish car sales happen in January

In Ireland a single calendar month accounts for roughly one in every four new cars sold. In 2025, January registrations hit 33,499 units, about 26.8% of the full year's 124,954 passenger-car total (SIMI Motorstats; SIMI, 2 January 2026). The cause is the "year plate" system: the first digits of an Irish number plate show the year of registration, and many buyers wait for January so their plate shows the newest year.

Monthly registration share, 2024 vs 2025

Month	2024 share	2025 share
January	25.9%	26.8%
February	13.6%	11.2%
March	12.1%	13.8%
April	7.1%	7.0%
May	5.3%	4.7%
June	1.2%	1.9%
July	21.2%	21.4%
August	6.2%	6.1%
September	4.2%	4.5%
October	2.0%	1.7%
November	0.9%	0.7%
December	0.3%	0.2%

Shares are computed from SIMI Motorstats monthly passenger-car registrations: 121,316 cars in 2024 (SIMI's revised total) and 124,954 in 2025.

The split plate created a second peak

Since 2013 Ireland has used a split plate (for example 251 for January to June 2025 and 252 for July to December) to spread demand and create a second peak. It worked in part: July is now Ireland's second-largest registration month, at 21.4% of the year in 2025 (26,732 cars). January and July together took almost half of all 2025 registrations, while October to December together took under 3%.

Why this matters for buyers and dealers

Three downstream effects shape the Irish market:

1. Inventory cycle. With November and December registrations below 1% of the year each, dealers work towards January and July rather than spreading stock evenly across the year.
2. Plate year as a signal of age. Buyers treat the plate year as a visible marker of a car's age, which is the main reason so many wait for January rather than register in December.
3. Policy timing. When a regulation, VRT change or grant adjustment is announced, deferred demand tends to land in the next plate period.

Source & methodology

Figures from SIMI Motorstats (the Society of the Irish Motor Industry), the official source for new-car registrations in Ireland. Monthly shares are computed on national passenger-car totals; light commercial and motorcycle registrations are excluded. The interactive month-by-month chart for every year from 2010 onwards is available on the AutoNergy Ireland dashboard.