Sales (or at least registrations) of new cars fell by ten per cent in May this year compared to May 2021 as the supply crisis stalls deliveries.
20 per cent down on 2019
Some 5,035 new cars were registered in Ireland in May, compared to 5,914 in May 2021. Sales for the year to date are actually up, by 3.5 per cent, compared to 2021 (63,045 plays 61,091), but they're still 20 per cent down on the last pre-Covid year of 2019.
Light commercial vehicle sales are also down, which is never good news for the wider economy, although heavy goods vehicle sales were up by 9.5 per cent.
May saw 744 new electric cars registered, which compares to 534 in the same month last year. So far this year 8,261 new electric cars have been registered in comparison to 3,940 on the same period in 2021.
Electric market share growing
Electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and hybrids continue to increase their market share, with a combined market share now of 43.14 per cent. Petrol continues to remain dominant with 27.96 per cent, diesel accounts for 26.46 per cent, hybrid 22.87 per cent, electric 13.10 per cent and plug-in hybrid 7.17 per cent.
Brian Cooke, Director General of SIMI, said: "New vehicle registrations continue to remain challenging, with a slowdown during the month of May, reflecting the international supply chain issues. New car registrations year to date are over 20 per cent behind pre-Covid (2019) levels, while sales of commercial vehicles, both light and heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), also remain subdued. Despite the decline in May new car registrations, the sale of electric cars continues to grow, with EV sales for the first five months of the year over double that of the same period last year.
"The EPA today has highlighted the huge challenges in meeting emissions reductions required by 2030. For transport this means increased investment in active and public transport, and also rapidly reducing emissions from the national vehicle fleet by accelerating the move to electrification and dealing with the legacy fleet. In this context, the industry and consumers will need confidence that both the current levels of EV supports are continued, and that Government support the massive investment required to create a charging infrastructure that keeps pace on an ongoing basis with the increasing numbers of EVs."
Toyota is the best seller
Toyota retains the best-selling brand spot, followed by Hyundai, Volkswagen, Kia and Skoda. The Hyundai Tucson is still the best-selling individual car, followed by the Toyota Corolla, Toyota C-HR, Toyota RAV4 and Toyota Yaris. The Toyota Corolla was May's best seller.
The best-selling electric car for the year so far is the Volkswagen ID.4, followed by the Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6, Nissan Leaf and Tesla Model 3.