New car registrations in Ireland are continuing to rise, but the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) warns that sales levels are still lagging behind pre-Covid figures.
Current sales 20 per cent down on 2019
April 2022 closed out with a ten per cent rise in registrations (which may not entirely reflect actual sales). 7,886 new cars were registered in April this year, compared to 7,147 in the same month in 2021.
For the year to date, 57,776, a 4.7 per cent rise on 2021's figures, but overall registrations are still well behind pre-Covid levels last seen in 2019. In fact, at this point of the year in 2019, 73,030 new cars had been registered, more than 20 per cent ahead of current figures.
Supply chain issues
Commenting on the new vehicle registrations Brian Cooke, Director General SIMI said: "While new car registrations in April saw a 10.3 per cent increase on the same month last year and are up 4.7 per cent year to date, overall registrations still remain 20.9 per cent behind that of pre-Covid (2019) levels. The return to more normal new car sales levels is being hampered in the short term by both supply chain issues and the uncertain global political climate. Over the medium term both the high levels of vehicle taxation and the uncertainty over the continuation of electric vehicle supports has the potential to lead to the ongoing suppression of new vehicle demand. This will only make the ability to optimise the reduction in transport emissions more difficult. The increase in electric vehicle sales continues to be the one positive feature of the new car market, but this has only been possible due to the SEAI Grant supports for both cars and home charging. The continuation of these supports is simply vital if we want to get close to the EV targets outlined in the country's Climate Action Plan."
More than 1,200 EVs registered in April
For the month of April 1,286 new electric vehicles were registered compared to 590 in April 2021. So far this year 7,524 new electric cars have been registered in comparison to 3,406 on the same period in 2021. Electric Vehicle, Plug-in Hybrids and Hybrids continue to increase their market share, with a combined market share now of 43.89 per cent. Petrol continues to remain dominant with 27.23 per cent, Diesel accounts for 26.40 per cent, Hybrid 23.56 per cent, Electric 13.02 per cent and Plug-in Electric Hybrid 7.31 per cent.
Used car imports for April (4,223) have seen a decrease of 25.6 per cent on April 2021 (5,676). Year to date imports are down 34.2 per cent (15,864) on 2021 (24,095).
In the best-sellers charts, Hyundai is still riding high with the Tucson still holding onto the number-one spot, followed by the Toyota Corolla, Toyota C-HR, Toyota RAV4, and Toyota Yaris. Unsurprisingly, given that list, Toyota is still the best-selling brand overall, followed by Hyundai, Kia - which has leapt up into third place - , Volkswagen, and Skoda.
The best-selling electric car for the year to date is the Hyundai Ioniq 5, followed by the Volkswagen ID.4, the Kia EV6, Nissan Leaf, and Tesla Model 3.
The best-selling car in April was the Hyundai Tucson.