Coronavirus puts the brakes on an already struggling new car market
COVID-19 has put the brakes on new car registrations, with a 63 per cent year-on-year decline in County Wexford last month.
Sales are expected to hit the wall in the weeks ahead as the coronavirus lockdown continues and such is the seriousness of the situation that one leading figure within the industry in County Wexford, Barry Devereux, from Diarmuid Boland Motors, has said the sector has been ‘decimated’.
The new car market was already struggling even before the outbreak, but the rate of decline accelerated dramatically in March.
Wexford new car registrations were down almost 10 per cent in January, but had rallied in February to almost match 2019 figures.
However, in March there were just 164 new car registrations in the county, compared with 439 last year.
A total of 1,282 new cars were registered in Co Wexford in the first quarter of 2020, down 22 per cent from 1,646 in 2019.
In Wexford, Toyota was the only marque to show an increase in sales.
179 Toyota cars have been registered in 2020, an increase of 37 on the first three months of 2019. The Japanese manufacturer had an almost 14 per cent share of the Wexford market; last year that share was just shy of 9 per cent.
Of the top ten cars registered in Co Wexford in the first quarter of 2020, only the Toyota Corolla and the Peugeot 2008 saw an increase on 2019.
Almost half of the new cars registered were of the jeep or standard SUV variety.
Diesel remains the most popular fuel type, with a 46 per cent share of the market, but registrations of electric and hybrid electric vehicles are up in every category.
Almost one in five new cars registered in Wexford are now either electric or hybrid.
Automatic transmissions are also becoming more popular - up almost ten per cent to 34.24% of total cars registered in the county.
Meanwhile, grey is still the most favoured colour with local new car buyers, followed by white/ivory, blue and black in that order.
The fall in registrations of light commercial vehicles was not as great as the drop in the passenger car sector. LCV registrations in Co Wexford were down from 313 to 259, a 17.25 per cent decrease in 12 months.
Wexford’s figures mirror those in the country as a whole. Nationally, new car registrations for March were down 63% (6,174) when compared to March 2019 (16,687).
Used car imports for March (4,656) saw a decrease of 48.1% on March 2019 (8,970). Year to date imports are down 34.9% (17,471) on 2019 (26,832).
Commenting on the figures, Brian Cooke, SIMI Director
General, said:
‘ The health of our nation is the overriding priority. The Motor Industry will assist the State