Not surprisingly, registrations of new cars in Ireland continued to fall in July, as the country tries to get to grips with life after lockdown. Registrations fell by 14 per cent compared to July 2019, which isn't good, but which is at least a little less awful than it might have been, given the huge falls seen in the immediate wake of lockdown.
Registrations down by almost one third for the year
It does mean that the total car market is down by 29.8 per cent for the year to date, compared to the same period in 2019, with just under 75,000 new vehicles registered so far this year. That's not quite as calamitous as the recession year of 2009, but it's not healthy. Light commercial (van) registrations were down by 5.5 per cent compared to July 2019 and are down 25 per cent for the year to date. HGV registrations were actually up slightly in July, by 2.8 per cent, but are down for the year to date, by 28.8 per cent.
Imports of used cars are down by 49 per cent for the year to date, but that descent flattened out a little in July - imports decreased by 6.8 per cent compared to the same month in 2019.
Reduce the age, reduce the emissions
Brian Cooke, SIMI Director General commenting on the market figures said: "While the July registration period did bring much needed activity back to showrooms, new car sales continue to disappoint, with another monthly fall. This is despite the fact that many quarter 2 sales had been pushed back into the 202 registration plate. Covid-19 on the back of Brexit and an already falling new car market since 2016, now sees new car sales back to recession levels, down 30 per cent year to date. Looking further into the numbers, new car sales will fall for the fourth consecutive year, with a staggering 44 per cent reduction over the last 4 years. This slowdown is materially undermining the renewal of the National car fleet, which is not only bad for profitability and regional employment, but is also hampering Ireland's efforts to reduce transport emissions. With the Budget only two months away, we need to see a reduction in VRT, to allow the car market return to normal sustainable levels, which will reduce both the age of the fleet and emissions".
Volkswagen is the best-selling brand
Once again, electric vehicles provided some small succour. Their registrations fell by merely 1.0 per cent in July, compared to the same month last year, and are actually up by 5.18 per cent for the year to date.
In terms of the sales charts, Volkswagen is the best selling brand, followed by Toyota, Hyundai, Skoda, and Ford. The Toyota Corolla is the best selling car for the year to date (and for the month of July) and is followed by the Hyundai Tucson, the Volkswagen Tiguan, the Ford Focus and the Hyundai Kona.
Purely diesel power counts for 46 per cent of buyers, followed by petrol on 37 per cent, hybrid on 12 per cent, electric on 3.5 per cent, and plug-in hybrid on 2.5 per cent.