Mayo new car registrations in January up 6.31% on same month last year
The Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) has today released official 231 new vehicle registrations statistics for January.
In a market up 9.4% (27,364) when compared to January 2022 (25,014), the Mayo increase is slightly more modest at 6.31% (522) compared to the same month last year (491).
Throughout Ireland, light commercial vehicles (LCV) were up 10.1% (5,559) compared to January last year (5,051), with HGV (heavy goods vehicle) registrations also showing an increase of 52.5% (424) in comparison to January 2022 (278).
Imported used cars saw a 6.3% (3,786) decrease in January 2023 when compared to January 2022 (4,041).
New electric car registrations reached their highest month on record, with 3,682 registered in January 2023 (+36.5%) compared to 2,697 in January 2022 and now account for 13.5% of the marketplace.
Automatic transmissions have risen in popularity, with a 58.11% of market share, while manual transmissions now account for 41.81%. The hatchback is Ireland’s top selling car body type of 2023.
Commenting on the figures, Brian Cooke, SIMI director general, said: “New car registrations for the month of January are 9.4% ahead of last year. While this is an important step in the right direction for the industry, both in terms of new cars and the additional trade-ins generated to supply the used car market, sales still remain 15% behind pre-Covid January 2019.”
He added: “Sales of commercial vehicles, both light and heavy, are also showing an increase on last year. Even more positively, the sale of new electric vehicles (EVs) have shown a promising start to the year with 3,682 registrations, a record monthly total.
“With supply chains improving, we anticipate continuing growth in the EV market, although this will not only be down to vehicle supply but also to the level of government supports.
“We are still in the early stages of the EV project and the recent announcement of increased funding by the state for the national charging infrastructure will help allay range anxiety concerns and encourage more motorists to look at an EV. However, this increased investment must not be at the expense of purchase supports, which are essential in encouraging the behavioural change required to convince more consumers to go electric. The extension of grants, reduced tolling charges and VRT reliefs, as well as halting the reduction in the EV benefit-in-kind reliefs, should be on the agenda.
“We recognise that supports cannot remain in place indefinitely but any early erosion or reduction in supports could risk EV supply levels and also reduce sales growth at a key time in the evolution of the market, which would also delay the creation of an active used EV market.”
The 10 top selling car brands so far this year are: Toyota, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Skoda, Kia, Ford, Dacia, Peugeot, Audi and BMW.
The 10 top selling models are: Hyundai Tucson, Toyota Yaris Cross, Toyota Yaris, Toyota C-HR, Toyota Corolla, Dacia Sandero, Kia Sportage, Hyundai Kona, Volkswagen T-ROC, Hyundai Ioniq.
The 10 top selling EVs are: Hyundai Ioniq 5, Hyundai Kona, Volkswagen ID.4, Kia EV6, BMW i4, Kia Niro, Nissan Leaf, Skoda Enyaq, Renault Megane, Toyota bZ4x.