In the first half of 2016, a total of 97,490 new private cars were licensed in Ireland, a rise of 23.9 percent compared with the same period last year, according to latest figures on Friday.

The figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed Volkswagen was the most popular make of new private cars licensed in the first half of 2016, followed by Toyota, Hyundai, Ford and Nissan.

The CSO said these five makes represent 49.9 percent of all new private cars licensed.

In the first half of 2016, seven out of every ten new private cars licensed were diesel fuelled, while 96.3 percent of new private cars licensed in the same period were in the CO2 emission levels of Category A/B, according to the CSO figures.

The CSO figures also showed that the number of used private cars licensed rose by 25 percent compared with the same period in 2015.

In June 2016, a total of 4,143 new private cars were licensed for the first time, an increase of 5.6 percent compared with June 2015. A total of 5,459 used private cars were licensed, representing an increase of 45 percent on the same month last year. 
Source:XINHUA