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.