New car registrations down by 20% in 2020
The number of new cars registered in Westmeath fell by almost 20 per cent last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to new figures from the industry, there were 1,289 new cars registered locally last year compared to 1,585 in 2019 – a year on year decrease of 18.68 per cent.
Nationally, a total of 88,324 new cars were registered in 2020, a 25% decrease on 2019 when the figure was 117,109. There was also a significant drop in the number of new light commercial vehicles (21,731, -14.2%) and new heavy commercial vehicles (2,066, -22.3%) registered last year.
The number of imported used cars fell from 113,926 in 2019 to 79,969 last year – a drop of 29.8%. However, the number of new electric cars registered rose from 3,444 in 2019 to 4,013 in 2020.
Other stats of note show a changing market place in 2020. Diesel accounted for 43.29%, Petrol 36.91%, Hybrid 11.86%, Electric 4.54%, and Plug-In Hybrid 2.78%. Diesel remains the most popular engine type, while hybrid, electric and plug-in hybrid gained market share in 2020.
Manual transmissions (59.8%) continue to be more popular despite a decline in market share with automatic transmissions (40.09%) continuing to gaining in popularity.
The hatchback remains Ireland’s top selling car body type of 2020. While grey is the top selling colour and has continued to keep that title for the past five years.
Volkswagen was the most popular make with Irish motorists buying new cars with a12.1% share of the market, followed by Toyota (11.35%), Hyundai (9.26%) and Skoda (8.4%).
Brian Cooke, the director general of the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI), said that “like many other sectors, 2020 proved to be a very difficult year for the Irish motor industry”.
“New car sales, already hampered in recent years due to Brexit, were down a further 25% due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and are now at recession levels. Looking to January, the key month for new car sales, the dramatic deterioration in the public health situation over the last few weeks and the implementation of Level 5 restrictions will make it another difficult period for the sector. Dealerships remain open for service, repair and testing, which are essential services, and the industry will continue to play an important role in assisting emergency and essential services.
“Car sales will operate on a click and collect service with retailers increasing investment in their digital platforms to facilitate customers. In the current challenged business environment, it is vital that the current restrictions succeed in driving down the incidence of COVID so business and society can return to some level of normality,” he said.