Irish car sales continued to climb in April despite the global economic and political headwinds. For the first time, electric cars outsold their diesel counterparts.
Sales up 16 per cent this year
1,870 new electric cars were registered in April, a 46 per cent rise from the same month last year (1,280). That was almost 100 sales ahead of diesel cars in April, which saw 1,748 registrations.
Overall sales for the month stood at 8,941, up by 14 per cent compared to last April. It puts total new car registrations for the year at 67,018 - a full 10,000 units ahead of where the market stood this time last year, a 16 per cent rise for the year to date.
Even so, the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) quickly pointed out that this figure is still behind what it called the 'last pre-Covid year' of 2019.
Momentum behind EV sales
Brian Cooke, SIMI Director General, said: "April's new car registrations show a 14 per cent increase on the same month last year, while year to date registrations are 16 per cent ahead of 2022, but still remain 8eight per cent behind that of pre-Covid 2019. Commercial vehicle registrations both the heavy and light sectors, demonstrated strong growth for the month of April. Electric vehicle sales continue to power ahead with 1,870 new electric vehicles registered in April and 11,164 registered so far this year, a 49 per cent increase on the same period 2022. The Electric Vehicle share of the new car market has increased each month this year, with sales for the month of now April representing over 20 per cent of the market. The momentum behind new EV sales is clearly there, but we need to continue to incentivise EV purchases if we want to continue the growth in the new EV market share, but also to create an active used EV market."
For all of SIMI's doom and gloom over the comparisons to 2019 sales, there was more good news elsewhere - sales of vans and heavy trucks were also significantly up, by 33 per cent and 35 per cent, respectively, which is a good indicator of underlying strength in the wider economy.
Imports up fractionally this year
Imports of used cars, largely from the UK, fell by nine per cent in April, and have risen by a fractional 2.8 per cent so far this year, which possibly reflects continuing restrictions on the supply of used cars in the UK as much as anything else.
Toyota is maintaining its lead as the best-selling car brand for 2023, followed by Volkswagen, Hyundai, Skoda, and Kia.
The Hyundai Tucson remains the best-selling model, followed by the Kia Sportage, the Toyota Corolla, the Toyota Yaris Cross, and the Toyota C-HR.
The best-selling electric brand for the year to date is Volkswagen, followed by Hyundai, Kia, Tesla, and BMW.
The Volkswagen ID.4 remains the best-selling EV of the year so far, followed by the Hyundai Ioniq 5, the Tesla Model Y, the Skoda Enyaq, and the Kia EV6.
The best-selling car in April was the Dacia Sandero.