New car registrations up in Louth

Louth’s motor industry is revving up, with the number of new registrations on the increase across the county.

Car sales are monitored by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI), with latest figures indicating that there were 2,679 new registrations in Louth in 2018, up until the end of August.

This represents an increase of 0.9% on the first eight months of last year.

Commenting on the figures SIMI Director General, Alan Nolan warned that the figures also highlighlighted the number of vehicles that are being imported

‘ The economic fundamentals that underpin new car registrations look set to remain positive but strong growth in used imports will continue to undermine new car sales.’

In the Louth and border area, imported cars are mainly taken from Northern Ireland, and across the UK, and then re-registered or ‘ taken in’ as a new registration here.

The SIMI Director General warned of the impact this has on the Irish motor industry.

He added: ‘For businesses in the sector, the impact of low Sterling exchange rates, due to Brexit, will have driven used car imports to levels close to the new car sales total by the end of this year,.’

This he said had ongoing ‘consequences for the State in terms of tax revenues and the environment, as the combined VAT and VRT receipts on imported used cars are significantly less than from new car sales and their average emissions are higher.’