January 2025 accounted for approximately 26% of all annual Irish new car registrations. No other European country comes close to this level of concentration. The cause is Ireland's "year plate" system, the first digits of every Irish registration plate reflect the year of first registration. A car registered on 31 December 2024 displays a "242" plate; the same car bought on 1 January 2025 displays a "251" plate. The resale value gap between the two is significant.
Why It Matters
Buyers, dealers, OEMs and finance providers all front-load activity into January. Showrooms staff up. Marketing campaigns peak in December for January delivery. PCP/PCH contracts are timed to settle for January handover. The OEM monthly reporting cycle in Ireland is entirely January-anchored.
The 2013 July Reform
In 2013 Ireland introduced a second plate-change month: July. The intent was to smooth annual demand. The result was modest: July typically takes 16-18% of annual sales (a meaningful but smaller bump than January). The combined Jan + July share is now ~42-44%, leaving the other 10 months to share the remaining ~57%.
What This Means for EV Adoption
Single-month EV share figures in Ireland are misleading. January EV share is consistently 3-5 points higher than full-year EV share because fleet/early-adopter buyers concentrate in January. Always look at full-year EV share for Ireland, not single-month figures.
See the Ireland seasonality heatmap on the Ireland dashboard.