The total number of licensed (taxed) tractors recorded on Irish roads as of 31 December 2021 stood at 82,972 according to the Irish Bulletin of Vehicle and Driver Statistics 2021.

This is a reduction of 0.98%, or 817 fewer tractors than the 2020 report, where 83,789 tractors were taxed for road usage.

The annual bulletin from the Department of Transport deals with all transport vehicles on Irish roads, showing how many of each particular make of vehicle are taxed across the country.

It also includes discontinued brands which continue to work on Irish farms such as Leyland, Fiat, Ursus, David Brown and Renault.

The report revealed the total number of taxed vehicles recorded on Irish roads was 2,890,975 as of the end of December 2021. This was an increase of 29,991 vehicles (1.05%) on the previous year.

The total includes 2,232,174 private cars, 385,099 goods vehicles, 82,972 tractors, 54,680 vintage vehicles and 46,636 motorcycles.

Tractor brand by brand

The data indicates that Massey Ferguson continues to be Ireland’s most popular tractor brand, with a total of 16,384 tractors taxed. This accounts for 19.6% of all taxed tractors in the Republic of Ireland.

In second place was New Holland, with 15,011 taxed tractors, accounting for 17.9% of the fleet. In a close third was John Deere, with 12,709 tractors (15.2%). The top three most popular brands alone accounted for 52.7% of all tractors taxed on Irish roads.

Case/David Brown came in fourth with a tally of 8.4% (7,043 tractors). This was followed by Ford with 4,785 (5.7%), JCB with 3,281 (3.9%), Zetor with 3,221 (3.8%) and Landini with 2,865 (3.4%).

Massey Ferguson accounts for 20% of all taxed tractors in the Republic of Ireland.

County by county

Cork has the highest number of agricultural tractors at 11,346 units, almost double the fleet of any other county. Next up is Tipperary with 5,802 followed closely by Galway with 5,146 and Mayo with 4,750. Leitrim has Ireland’s smallest tractor fleet, with 995 units, followed by Louth (1,114) and Longford (1,328).

It’s worth pointing out that the Department’s data may feature outdated brand classifications which may have an impact on certain brand by brand figures.

In addition, brands such as JCB, Volvo and Terex have been included which would indicate that these figures are including a portion of loader and other agricultural vehicle registrations.

Such an example of classifications issues includes both Ford and New Holland. For instance, the later Fords such as the 40 Series may arguably be classed as either Ford or New Holland, or even both.

There are classifications for both Valtra and Valmet, which may mean tractors during the transition period could have fallen under either classification.

Likewise, Case IH’s legacy is tied up where we see the International brand recorded separately. Again, it’s possible that transition period tractors could have fallen under either classification.

Other vehicles

In terms of car brands, Toyota (275,816 units), Volkswagen (272,158 units) and Ford (241,306 units) are the most popular, with the trio accounting for 35% of all cars on Irish roads.

Meanwhile, the 2021 sales figures show that Toyota (12,435 units), Volkswagen (12,422 units), Hyundai (10,032 units), Skoda (8,656 units) and Ford (7,255) were the most popular sellers.

Meanwhile, the least popular three brands for 2021 included Subaru (38 units), SsangYong (94 units) and Jaguar (172 units).

In terms of fuel type, diesel remains the most popular fuel for Irish road users accounting for 64.31% of vehicles, followed by petrol at 30.74%.

Petrol/electric account for 2.89% (83,441 vehicles) of the fleet, followed by petrol/diesel with plug-in hybrid electric accounting for 0.84% (24,386 vehicles), while all electric accounts for 0.81% (23,333 vehicles) of the Irish fleet.