Total new car registrations for 2020 finished at 88,324, a 25 per cent decrease on 2019 (117,109 ).
According to figures from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry, 79,969 imported used cars were registered last year, which is a decrease of 29.8 per cent on 2019 (113,926 ).
Toyota’s Corolla was Ireland’s top selling car of 2020, while Volkswagen was the best-selling car brand. The country’s best selling car body type last year was the hatchback.
A total of 4,013 new electric cars were registered in 2020 in comparison to 3,444 in 2019. And grey is also the top selling colour and has continued to keep that title for the past five years.
Diesel still leads with 43.29 per cent of new car sales, and other stats of note show a changing market place in 2020.
Diesel accounted for 43.29 per cent, petrol 36.91 per cent, hybrid 11.86 per cent, electric 4.54 per cent, and plug-in hybrid 2.78 per cent. Diesel remains the most popular engine type, while hybrid, electric and plug-in hybrid gained market share in 2020.
Meanwhile, manual transmissions (59.8 per cent ) continue to be more popular despite a decline in market share with automatic transmissions (40.09 per cent ) continuing to gain in popularity.
Finally, if pub quizzes ever return, here’s one: Which county was the only one to record an increase in car sales in 2020 over the previous year? The answer is County Leitrim, recording a 1.02 per cent increase - 397 compared to the year previously 393. Roscommon saw the next least percentage drop (-9.69 per cent ), followed closely behind by Donegal (-9.87per cent ).
New light commercial vehicle (LCV )/ van registrations in 2020 saw a smaller decrease of 14.2 per cent (21,732 ) compared to 2019 (25,336 ).
Ford was the top selling brand with 20.97 per cent (down from 23.45 per cent in 2019 ), and the top selling model was the Peugeot Partner van.
Meanwhile new heavy commercial vehicle (HGV ) truck registrations decreased by 22.3 per cent (2,066 ) in comparison to 2019 (2,659 ).
