New car registrations up 1.6% last year to 89,900

NEW CAR registrations for last year totalled 89,900, an increase of 1.6 per cent on 2010.

With the Government due to overhaul the current emissions-based motor tax regime in the next budget, concerns over the significant drop in tax income from the motor sector are highlighted by the fact that more than 90 per cent of new cars registered last year qualified for the two lowest tax brackets.

According to figures released by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry, only 375 new cars were registered in December, down from 434 for the same month in 2010. While sales in the initial months of 2011 were quite strong, they fell off significantly in the second half of the year after the Government’s scrappage scheme ended in June.

Toyota remains the best-selling car brand, with 13 per cent market share and sales of 11,812, but Volkswagen has overtaken Ford to take second place. The German brand had a 12.5 per cent market share with sales of 11,247, compared to 11.7 per cent for the US firm on sales of 10,511.

Ford can take some solace in the fact its Focus remains the best-selling model on the Irish market with sales of 4,242, ahead of the VW Golf and Toyota Avensis.

Dublin remains the largest new car market, with 34,373 new registrations in 2011, representing 38 per cent of the new car market, well ahead of all other counties. Dublin registrations rose by 9.8 per cent compared with 2010.

Cork was second with 12.6 per cent of all registrations in 2011 and Galway third with 4.3 per cent.

In a cut-throat battle in the premium segment, Audi, with sales of 3,464, saw off stiff competition from arch-rival BMW, which was just 31 new car registrations behind it. Sales for both brands were up significantly, with BMW recording a 30.5 per cent increase on its 2010 sales, and Audi a 19 per cent rise. Both brands were also significantly ahead of Mercedes, which sold 1,951 new cars last year.

Despite the recession, both Audi and BMW also featured in the top 10 best-selling marques in Ireland last year, in ninth and 10th place respectively.

Diesel remains the favourite fuel for new car buyers, making up 71.2 per cent of sales, followed by 26.6 per cent which are petrol. Just 552 hybrid cars were registered here last year and only 46 electric cars, less than 10 per cent of what was predicted this time last year.

Nissan then had predicted it would sell 500 of its Leaf electric models in 2011. Meanwhile the ESB had set a target of 2,000 electric cars on the road by the end of 2011 and 6,000 electric cars by the end of 2012.

Hatchbacks remain the favoured format for Irish buyers, making up 45,126 of the new cars sold, followed by saloons with 26,463. However SUVs were a growth segment of the market, comprising 4.5 per cent of the market last year, compared with 2.6 per cent of sales in 2010.

This was partly due to the popularity of small crossover models such as the Nissan Qashqai, but also new premium variants such as the Range Rover Evoque, Audi Q3 and BMW X1. Silver remains the favourite colour, followed by black and grey.

While there are no official figures for the first two days of sales this year, reports from dealers and distributors suggest strong orders, ahead of last year. Part of this is due to customers pre-ordering their 2012-registered cars to avoid the January 1st VAT increases, along with a significant dip in sales in the early days of January last year due to the snowstorms.

Despite the expected strong sales in these first few weeks, many in the trade are predicting the new car market for 2012 will drop below 80,000 this year, with some suggesting it might fall to 70,000 new registrations.