Figures released by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) show that new car sales are up 95 percent compared to April 2009. Sales are up a total of 38 percent for the year compared to 2009.
SIMI are hailing the scrappage scheme as a major contributor to this rise in sales. Some 5,000 new cars have been sold under the scrappage scheme and the result is that low emission models now make up 75 percent of new car sales, compared to 57 percent in 2009.
Commenting, Alan Nolan, SIMI Director General said, "We're one third into the year and so far 5,000 consumers have already benefited from the Scrappage Scheme refunds. At this stage, it is clear that the Scrappage Scheme is yielding the results we had predicted last autumn. The Government is to be commended for having the foresight to support this scheme which is now paying back even more than could have been anticipated. We had predicted a win-win outcome but the results are certainly ahead of expectations at this stage.”
Average CO2 emissions for new cars have reduced by 16g/km to 135g/km and, according to SIMI, an additional €60 million has been raised between VAT and VRT through new car sales compared to last year.
However, Shane Teskey, Co-Founder of Motorcheck.ie says that, while this improvement in new car sales is welcome, the uptake of the scrappage scheme has been relatively modest: "Whilst this is certainly good news for the industry, it should be remembered that the majority of new car sales are concentrated into the first three months of the year and this year's figures will be inflated by those availing of the Government scrappage scheme."
Teskey adds that, considering the number of cars that qualify for the scrappage scheme, the uptake has been quite modest: "Our analysis shows that in the first four months of the year there were over 120,000 cars on the road that qualified by virtue of age alone for the scrappage scheme. The latest information from Government shows the number of cars processed to be in excess of 4,500 making the uptake a relatively modest 3.75%".
According to Motorcheck, a further 106,000 cars will qualify for scrappage as the year continues. This means that the industry could expect approximately 4,000 additional sales to come directly from the Government incentive. If that number is achieved and car sales hit a forecasted total of 75,000 for the year, the scrappage incentive will have accounted for 11 percent (8,500) of total new car sales.