March new car registration down

Hyundai Tucson

The total new car registrations for the month of March are down 5.6 per cent (16,738) when compared with March 2018 (17,726), writes Trish Whelan. New car registrations year to date are down 10.7 per cent (64,098) on the same period last year (71,760).

New Light Commercial Vehicle registrations are down 2.2 per cent (3,067) on March 2018 (3,137) and year to date are down 10.7 per cent (11,182). While New Heavy Commercial Vehicles saw a slight decline of 1.5 per cent (267) in comparison to March 2018 (271) and year to date are down 3.3 per cent (886).

On the other hand, imported used cars increased by 9.98 per cent (8,970) on March last year (8,156) and year to date are 2.74 per cent (26,832) ahead of 2018 (26,117).

New electric vehicle registrations continue to grow with 1,437 EV cars registered so far this year. This has surpassed the total number of EVs registered for the whole of 2018 (1,233).

Commenting, Brian Cooke, SIMI Director General Designate, said: “While new car sales are being dampened by Brexit uncertainty, the increase in VRT on new cars for 2019, arising from the fact that no allowance was made for the first step in the move to the new WLTP emissions testing regime, has also had a negative impact. Ireland is the only country in the EU that has sought to charge consumers higher registration taxes due to the improved emissions testing regime.”

He added: “While the VRT increases in the first phase of the transition to the WLTP test figures only saw an average increase of 5 per cent in the C02 values, the second phase next year will see these increasing by a further 21 per cent. All other Member States have followed the EU Commission view that consumers should not be faced with increased taxation due to the improved emissions testing regime.”

He said SIMI had warned that not adjusting for such large increases in C02 values will burden the consumer, damage new car sales and will actually reduce State revenues. The decrease in new cars sales in Q1 has meant that the State’s tax revenues from new cars have fallen by more than €60 million so far this year, and this shortfall will increase as the year progresses.

Current low volumes in the new car market have largely resulted from lower used car values for consumers’ trade-ins due to the huge volume of used car imports from the UK due to the Brexit-driven Sterling exchange rate. 

To add a tax increase that only applies to new cars can only lead to the current result, he added.

SIMI is urging the Government to take account of the impact of increasing taxes, not just on new car sales but also on employment in the Motor Industry across the country, and on the environment when recasting VRT and other motor related taxes in 2020. 

The 5 top selling car brands year to date are: 1. Volkswagen, 2. Hyundai, 3. Toyota, 4. Ford, 5. Skoda.

The 5 top car models year to date are: 1. Hyundai Tucson, 2. Nissan Qashqai, 3. Skoda Octavia, 4. VW Tiguan, 5. Ford Focus.

The top selling car in March 2019 is the Toyota Corolla.