Official figures released by car history experts Motorcheck.ie show that new car sales in January 2018 have decreased slightly on last year with 37k units sold compared to 39k units in January 2017. This represents a drop of about 5% on last year.
A large surge of 4.5k units registered on the last day of the month gave the figures a boost as manufacturers looked to hit their targets.
Diesel continues to be the biggest loser in New Car Sales with a 17% decrease (4.4k Units) for the period, whilst Petrol car sales increased by almost 13% (1.6k Units). The government incentive on BIK announced in the last budget did nothing to boost the sales of All-Electric powered vehicles with sales in that sector actually decreasing by 38%. Despite this, sales in the Hybrid-Electric sector surged by 1k Units, an increase of 75% on last year.
The Light Commercial sector rose by 6% with 6.7k Units registered in Jan 2018 compared to 6.3k in 2017.
Used imports continued to grow with a 20% increase in Jan 2018 compared to the same month last year. Despite the downturn in Diesel sales in the new car market, used Diesel imports were up 17% on last year.
Commenting on the figures, Michael Rochford, Managing Director of Motorcheck.ie said “the slight decrease in new car sales again in January are largely in line with expectations given the milestones that were reached in 2016 and the downward trend experienced last year. There is no cause for panic as figures are still relatively strong. The staggering statistic is the continued high growth in used cars imports. Given that there was an increase of 67% in Jan 2017 a further increase of 20% in Jan 2018 is massive. Diesel values in the UK have suffered in recent times and this has translated into even more value for prospective buyers of Diesels in Ireland”.
Car Sales Highlights:
- Car registrations for Jan 2018 decreased 5% with 37,017 units sold compared to 39,001 units sold in 2017
- Used cars imported for Jan 2018 increased 20% with 9,060 units sold
- The top selling manufacturers were Toyota, Hyundai, Ford, Volkswagen and Nissan
- The top selling models were the Hyundai Tucson, Nissan Qashqai, Ford Focus, Volkswagen Golf and Ford Fiesta
Light Commercial Sales Highlights:
- LCV registrations for Jan 2018 increased 6% with 6,725 units sold
- The top selling manufacturers were Ford, Volkswagen, Renault, Toyota and Citroen
