New Mexico Motor Vehicle Registration Statistics

New Mexico Motor Vehicle Registration Statistics

Annual calendar year statistics. Comprehensive tables of New Mexico registration statistics for each type of motor vehicle, and for all years 1900 to 2014, will be found in Chapter 50 of the
Early New Mexico License Plates book. For those calendar year tallies, please refer to this book. For the 2015 and later figures, please see the table toward the end of this page.

Passenger Car License Plate Allocations by County for 1952

Shown below are the allocations of 1952 passenger car license plates to each county as reported in the Santa Fe New Mexican for February 3, 1952, p. 5. The exact plate serial number assignments for each distribution point are given, as are the gaps between number blocks. These are followed by the actual totals in ( ) for each county. Note that the figures are for pairs of plates, corresponding to the number of vehicles expected to be registered. The grand total of 197,300 proved to be only 711 more than the final year-end passenger car registration total of 196,589 for 1952. Cty = County #. POE = Port of Entry. Transcription from original newspaper article courtesy Eric Tanner.


Cty	Branch Office		Plate Serial #s	Totals in ()
1	Motor Vehicle Cashier Motor Vehicle Mail Clerk Joe Parker Santa Fe Motor		1 - 7500 9001 - 9700 10001 - 14000 15001 - 15400	(12,600)
2	Albuquerque		1-50000	(50,000)
3	Carlsbad Artesia		1-10000 10001-15000	(15,000)
4	Roswell		1-15000	(15,000)
5	Clovis Melrose Texico POE		1-6000 7001-7600 8001-9000	(7,600)
6	Hobbs Lovington Eunice Maljamar Jal POE Tatum POE		1-5000 6001-8500 9001-10200 10501-10600 10701-12200 12701-16500	(14,100)
7	Las Cruces Hatch Anthony POE		1-5500 6001-7200 7501-10500	(9,700)
8	Silver City Bayard		1-4400 5001-6700	(6,100)
9	Raton POE Springer		1-3400 4001-5000	(4,400)
10	Tucumcari San Jon POE Nara Visa POE House		1-3500 4001-4500 5001-5125 5501-5625	(4,250)
11	Portales Elida		1-4400 5001-5350	(4,750)
12	Las Vegas		1-4000	(4,000)
13	Gallup Gallup POE		1-2750 3001-3300	(3,050)
14	Belen Grants Cubero		1-3200 4001-4800 6001-6300	(4,300)
15	Alamogordo		1-5000	(5,000)
16	Farmington Aztec Cedar Hill POE Shiprock POE		1-3000 4001-5200 6001-6300 6501-6800	(4,800)
17	Espanola Chama POE Dulce		1-3000 4001-4500 5001-5050	(3,550)
18	Clayton POE Clayton		1-1800 3001-3500	(2,300)
19	Deming		1-2200	(2,200)
20	Taos Questa POE Tres Piedras POE		1-1700 2001-2400 2501-2600	(2,200)
21	Truth or Consequences		1-2300	(2,300)
22	Estancia Mountainair		1-1000 2001-3000	(2,000)
23	Lordsburg Road Forks		1-1400 2001-2150	(1,550)
24	Santa Rosa East Vaughn		1-900 1501-1900	(1,300)
25	Socorro Magdalena		1-1600 2001-3300	(2,900)
26	Carrizozo Ruidoso Capitan Corona		1-900 2001-2700 3001-3350 4001-4150	(2,100)
27	Ft. Sumner		1-1200	(1,200)
28	Reserve Datil POE		1-300 1001-1400	(700)
29	Bernalillo Cuba		1-2300 3001-3350	(2,650)
30	Wagon Mound Mora		1-400 1001-1600	(1,000)
31	Roy Mosquero		1-400 1001-1300	(700)
32	Los Alamos		1-4000	(4,000)

		(Grand Total:		197,300)

County-by-county registration figures for 1956 and 1958. Below are two sets of county-by-county registration statistics recorded as of June 30, 1956, and June 30, 1958. The data is from the New Mexico Bureau of Revenue Biennial Reports for 1954-1956 and 1956-1958, respectively. The financial statements and certain other data within these reports are based on fiscal years that ended on June 30 of each year, but what is not clear is whether the registration figures below are mid-year snapshots of the 1956 and 1958 annual figures, or if they are cumulative fiscal year registration numbers that began on July 1 of the preceding years.

Nonetheless, because these are the only two sets of county-by-county figures for all vehicle types that have ever surfaced, despite years of searching through the State Archives and elsewhere, these tables provide invaluable insight into the distribution of various vehicle types among New Mexico’s counties.

Calendar Year Statistics for 2015 and Later. As noted in the introductory paragraph at the top of this page, the Early New Mexico License Plates book has complete statistics for all years from 1900 through 2014, inclusive. The table below continues with these figures for 2015 and later. For convenience of comparison, and in order to provide context to this later data, the table here repeats the 2000-2014 statistics, then continues with 2015 and subsequent years.

The information in this table is compiled by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and published on their website. Because of the enormity of collecting, organizing, cross checking and proofreading the data submitted from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, it is typically about a year following the close of each calendar year before that year’s statistics become available.

Electric Vehicle Definitions

As yet the classification of electric vehicles is not entirely uniform within the United States, nor for that matter are all such vehicles found to be correctly coded on their titles. The same is no doubt true in New Mexico, but the table above and the definitions below provide a good idea of the numbers of the principal types of electric vehicles registered in this state.

Hybrid-Electric (fuel code B). Currently the most common type of electric vehicle in New Mexico, these vehicles have both a battery-powered electric motor and a gasoline engine. The battery is charged by an alternator on the gasoline engine, and cannot be charged by plugging into an electrical outlet. Also called HEVs (Hybrid Electric Vehicles), the vast majority of vehicles sold as “hybrids” by the major auto makers are of this type.

Electric (fuel code E). Also called Battery Electric Vehicles, or BEVs, they run entirely on an electric motor powered by a rechargeable battery. Charging is accomplished by plugging into an electrical outlet. Examples include the Tesla and Nissan Leaf, which are sometimes referred to as all-electric vehicles.

Hybrid (fuel code H). A generic term for any vehicle that runs partially on battery power and is charged by plugging into an electrical outlet. These are also referred to Plug-in Electric Vehicles, or PEVs. They are not considered to be as versatile as the Hybrid-Electric and are not at all common.

Gas-n-Electric (fuel code X). These are plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) which have an electric motor with a rechargeable battery, as well as an independent gasoline engine. The battery for the electric motor is charged by plugging in to an electrical outlet. If the battery becomes discharged the vehicle can be switched over to the gasoline engine. Also not particularly common, the Chevrolet Volt is an example of this type.

-Back to Gallery Index-