June, traditionally a pretty quiet month for new car sales in Ireland, has seen a bumper crop of registrations this year, pushing the total of new cars sold here since January to 77,488, an 18.8 per cent rise.
Big rise in EV registrations
In June of 2022, 2,154 new cars were registered - this year, in the same month, the figure was 2,994, a rise of 39 per cent.
Now, a big part of that rise has been a massive jump in the registrations of electric cars, which is possibly no surprise, as July 1st was the cutoff date for the €5,000 SEAI grant for buying a new EV - it falls to €3,500 as of this month (with a few exceptions). In June, 1,441, almost half of all cars registered, and a ridiculous 666.49 per cent rise on the 188 new electric cars registered in June 2022. It's something of a skewed figure, though, given the change in government incentives.
Orders held over from 2022
According to Brian Cooke, the secretary general of the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI), another component of the big rise in car sales so far this year has been the fact that dealers are clearing the backlog of orders hanging over from 2022 when the global shortage of computer chips held up production of cars.
"The new car market performed strongly in June with registrations 39 per cent ahead of the same month last year," said Cooke. "While year to date new car registrations are still 4 per cent behind pre-COVID 2019, the gap is closing every month, aided by fulfilment of 2022 orders and improved new vehicle supply. June in particular saw a significant boost in electric car sales, with 1,441 registrations during the month, in comparison to 188 units in June 2022, no doubt as a result of EV buyers wanting to avail of the full SEAI Grant of €5,000, which is to be reduced from July 1st. Year to date the EV market has exceeded 14,000 cars, an increase of 69 per cent on last year. It should be highlighted that there still is a significant basket of incentive for EV buyers, including ongoing purchase and home charger grant support, VRT relief for many EVs, as well as low annual road tax. These supports, along with an increasing number of EV models coming to market, should ensure strong new car activity as we enter the 232 registration plate sales period. Going forward we need to maintain these incentives as well as an attractive BIK incentive for businesses, if we want to build on the momentum that is clearly there in the EV market."
Tesla Model Y was June's best-seller
Light commercial vehicles - vans, to you and I - are also selling well, with sales for the year-to-date up by 33 per cent so far, which is a good sign for the underlying health of the Irish economy. The imports of used cars decreased in June, falling by 2.6 per cent compared with the same month last year. Imports are up slightly, by 3.8 per cent so far this year, at 25,027 cars.
The combined market share of electric cars, plug-in hybrids and hybrids now stands at 43 per cent, although petrol is still the single most preferred fuel (especially if you remember that hybrids generally have petrol engines) on 31 per cent of sales. Diesel accounts for 21 per cent, electric cars hold 18 per cent, hybrid cars 17 per cent, and plug-in hybrids 7.8 per cent.
Toyota still holds the No.1 sales spot for brands, followed by Volkswagen, Hyundai, Skoda, and Kia. The Hyundai Tucson is still the best-selling car overall (a position it has held virtually permanently since 2016), followed by the Kia Sportage, the Toyota Corolla, the Toyota Yaris Cross, and the Volkswagen ID.4.
Unsurprisingly, given that it's the fifth best-selling vehicle overall, the Volkswagen ID.4 is also the best-selling electric car, followed by the Tesla Model Y, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Skoda Enyaq, and Tesla Model 3. The Tesla Model Y was both the best-selling electric car and the best-selling car overall in June.