Official statistics just released by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI ), show that the total new car registrations for the month of June were down 10.4 percent (1,255 ) when compared to June 2017 (1,400 ) - and with the end of the 181 registrations, the year to date is down 4.5 percent (87,151 ) on the same period last year (91,215 ).
New light commercial vehicle registrations (LCV ) were slightly up 2.06 percent (694 ) on June 2017 (680 ) and for the year to date are up 5.7 percent (16,633 ) - an encouraging result.
Meanwhile, the new Heavy Commercial Vehicles (HGV ) have seen an increase of 110 per cent for the month of June (185 ) compared to the same month last year (88 ) but are still down 1.1 per cent (1,571 ) for the year to date.
Imported Used Cars have shown a further increase of 11.5 percent for the month of June 2018 (8,142 ) when compared to June 2017 (7,304 ) while for the year to date, registrations are 12.8 percent (51,879 ) ahead of 2017 (46,002 ).
Some other interesting figures include electric vehicles total sales so far in 2018 which were 529 against the market for the similar period in 2017 which was 374, an increase of 41.44 percent.
The car hire total year to date remains steady at 13,680 compared to a similar period last year at 13,458, a rise of 1.65 percent. However, there was a big jump in the June figure, at 314 last month against June, 2017 at 99, a rise of 217.17 percent.
The top five selling car brands for the year to date were Volkswagen, Toyota, Hyundai, Ford and Nissan.
The top five new car model’s for the year to date were Nissan Qashqai, Hyundai Tucson, Volkswagen Golf, Ford Focus, and Skoda Octavia with the top selling new car in June being the Opel Corsa.
Commenting on the figures SIMI Director General, Alan Nolan stated, ‘while June has seen a decline in new car registrations of 10.4 percent, registrations in this month are relatively small numbers as many consumers will have waited for a 182 registration number. The more relevant measure is the year to date figure which shows a decline of 4.5 percent compared to the same period in 2017.
This is somewhat at odds with the growth in economic activity in the country but has to be seen in the context of the volume of used car imports which impact negatively on new car sales. Commercial vehicle registrations both light and heavy vehicles have seen some increase for the month of June, reflecting investment for businesses.’
