What's the news?
Final figures from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) confirm that 2015 saw a marked increase in new vehicle registrations. The year saw a total of 124,945 new cars registered, more than what many in the industry had predicted and 30 per cent up on the 2014 figure.
The official statistics show no real surprises, with black being the most popular colour for cars throughout 2015. Despite being clouded by an emissions scandal in the latter part of the year Volkswagen was the brand with the highest number of new car registrations with a total of 15,379. It was followed by Toyota, with 13,109 and Ford with 12,050. Hyundai narrowly edged into fourth place with 11,484, just ahead of Nissan with 11,198 new car registrations.
A more telling indicator of improvements in the economy is the significant increase in the number of light commercial vehicles (LCV) registered in 2015. In total, 23,722 new LCVs were registered, a 42 per cent increase compared with 2014. Although the quantities are smaller, heavy goods vehicle (HGV) registrations also increased by 9 per cent to a total of 2,135. Ford took the top spot for new LCV registrations with 6,467 units, well ahead of second-place Volkswagen, which registered 3,371 new LCVs.
Commenting on the announcement of the figures, Alan Nolan, Director General at SIMI, said: "We are pleased that 2015 has turned out to be a good year of continued recovery for our Industry which is a very strong indicator of the health of the general economy. We now look forward to 2016 with greater optimism and a real potential to see registrations return to normal levels that we have not seen since before 2008. Sales within the different sectors have performed well in 2015 and we would expect to see this improvement continue in the new year".
Anything else?
The top five new cars registered in 2015 looked like this:
1. Volkswagen Golf
2. Ford Focus
3. Nissan Qashqai
4. Skoda Octavia
5. Toyota Corolla