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The Irish car trade is reeling from January figures that show a 13 per cent fall off in registrations, in what is supposed to be the busiest month of the year.
32,374 new cars were registered, compared to 37,023 in the same month last year. Once again, Brexit is being blamed by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI), as the continued devaluing of Sterling makes secondhand imports from the UK that much more tempting to Irish car buyers.
Jim Power, economist and author of the SIMI Report said: "Based on what we know at the moment, the new car market could decline from around 125,422 to around 110,000, a decline of 12.3 per cent. Used imports look set to reduce marginally to around 98,000. However, in the event of a 'no-deal' Brexit, sales would be weaker, and in the event of a deal and the removal of uncertainty, sales could match 2018. In overall terms, the coming months are likely to be characterised by deep uncertainty."
Brian Cooke, Director General Designate, SIMI commented: "New Vehicle Registrations in January are clearly disappointing but not surprising. With Brexit fast approaching adding to business uncertainty, the weakness of Sterling is continuing to drive down used car values which is increasing the cost to change. While we hope the EU and UK's negotiations result in agreement that allows for free trade, the likelihood of no deal is increasing by the day. While the Industry is ramping up its preparations for a no deal Brexit, in the context of the potential impact on a sector whose activity will be in the region of €5-billion between now and the end of the year, it is crucial that the State fully clarifies the trading conditions in the event of no agreement being reached. This is an immediate issue as we may be only eight weeks away from a no deal outcome. More positively the increase in EV sales in the second half of last year has further accelerated into January, with the total EV registrations of 811 representing nearly two-thirds of EV sales for the whole of last year."
However, in spite of the blaming of Brexit, imports from the UK actually fell slightly compared to January last year, seeing a drop of 0.6 per cent - 9,006 this year compared to 9,061 in January 2018. The vast majority of those cars are diesel (72 per cent of the total) and the top-three imported cars were the Ford Focus, Volkswagen Golf, and BMW 5 Series.
Of the new cars that were registered here, Hyundai once again finds itself sitting on top of both charts, as the best selling brand overall, and with the best selling individual model - the Tucson. Coming up behind Hyundai in the brand stakes were Volkswagen, Ford, Toyota, and Nissan, while the best-selling models top five was rounded out by the Nissan Qashqai, Ford Focus, Toyota Yaris, and Skoda Octavia.
Van registrations fell sharply too, which is possibly an indication that businesses are holding off in investing in new work vehicles until the Brexit situation becomes more clear - registrations fell by 16.3 per cent, while heavy goods vehicles dropped by 11.4 per cent.
The bright spot in the registrations was for electric cars, which jumped dramatically to a record 811 registrations, up from just 104 in January last year, and actually beating the total EV sales figure in 2018.
That means that electric cars now hold 2.5 per cent of the total market. Combine those sales with the figures for hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles, and so-called alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) now make up 9.6 per cent of total car sales.
By contrast, diesel sales dropped below half-market share for the first time in a decade, picking up a still-substantial 49 per cent of sales. Petrol now accounts for 40 per cent of all sales.