New car registrations are up for the first half of this year, according to new sales figures released by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry.
New car registrations had jumped by 23 per cent (101,338 ) from the same period last year (82,337 ), while the month of June saw an increase of 12 per cent (1,626 ) compared to June 2015 (1,448 ).
In the business sector Light Commercial Vehicles are currently up nine per cent (867 ) on June last year (799 ) and year to date are up 26 per cent (18,417 ) overall. Heavy Goods Vehicle registrations have witnessed a decline of -29 per cent for the month of June (112 ) 2016 when compared to the same month last year (157 ), but registrations are up 42 per cent year to date.
Commenting on the figurers, SIMI director general Alan Nolan said the industry had predicted this year’s registration numbers should reach 150,000 for the first time since 2008.
"These figurers keep us on track to deliver that. The focus now turns to the 162 registration period. This year promises to be the first normal year of registrations since the recession and with the range of attractive offers available across all brands we are confident that 162 will also deliver in the coming months.”
The stats in short:
• New car sales year to date (2016 )
- 101,338 - (2015 ) 82,337 +23%
• New car sales total June (2016 )
- 1,626 - (2015 ) 1,448 +12%
• Hire cars year to date (2016 ) - 14,024 - (2015 ) 12,370 + 13%
• Five top selling makes for the year 2016:
1 Volkswagen, 2 Toyota, 3 Hyundai, 4 Ford, 5 Nissan.
• Top selling make for Cars & LCVs combined - Ford.
• Five top selling models for the Year 2016
1 Hyundai Tucson, 2 Volkswagen Golf, 3 Ford Focus, 4 Skoda Octavia, 5 Nissan Qashqai.
• Top selling car for the month of June Toyota Yaris
• Top selling colour for the month of June is Black while year to date is Grey
• Light Commercial Vehicles sales year to date (2016 ) 18,417 (2015 ) 14,657 +26%
• Light Commercial Vehicles sales total June (2016 ) 867 (2015 ) 799 +9%
• Heavy Goods Vehicle total sales year to date (2016 ) 1,790 (2015 ) 1,260 +42%
• Heavy Goods Vehicle sales total June (2016 )
112 (2015 ) 157 -29%.
Car sales across Europe
Meanwhile figures published by European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association paint a very positive picture of the European new passenger car market. Registrations rose 16.0 per cent in May, reaching 1,288,220 units.
In May 2016, European passenger car registrations showed a double digit growth marking 33 consecutive months of growth. Year-to-date, the market grew by 9.9 per cent, totalling 6.4 million units.
All largest European markets performed well: Italy (+27.3% ), France (+22.3% ) and Spain (+20.9% ) experienced the largest increase, in Germany (+11.9% ) and the UK (+2.5% ) car registrations grew at a more modest rate.
By comparison, the overall new car sales market in Ireland rose by 29.77 per cent for the full year in 2015 over 2014, and the January to May 2016 market is still up 23.27 per cent on the similar five months last year.
Cars Sales by counties year to date (Jan - June 2016 )
County 2016 2015 % Change 2016 % Share 2015 % Share
Clare 2317 1867 24.1% 2.29% 2.27%
Galway 4044 3427 18% 3.99% 4.16%
Leitrim 442 386 14.51% 0.44% 0.47%
Longford 516 435 18.62% 0.51% 0.53%
Mayo 1978 1676 18.02% 1.95% 2.04%
Offaly 1339 1030 30% 1.32% 1.25%
Roscommon 1023 742 37.87% 1.01% 0.9%
Sligo 951 741 28.34% 0.94% 0.9%
Westmeath 1539 1330 15.71% 1.52% 1.62%
