Car sales start of recover
CAR sales in Louth are showing signs of recovery with a big jump in the number of new registrations in March, although they are still down compared to March 2019.
Nationally, new car registrations for March were up 54.3 per cent (9,270) when compared to March 2020 (6,006) but down 44.45 per (16,687) on March 2019.
Registrations year to date are down 3.23% (48,188) on 2020 (49,794) and down 24.85% on the same period in 2019 (64,126).
Here in Louth new registrations jumped by 39.62 per cent in March with 222 last month compared to 159 in March 2020 when the country first went into lockdown. This follows on a slight increase of 5.35 per cent in February, while January’s figures showed plunged by almost 19 per cent.
So far there have been a total of 1263 new cars registered in the county, with Toyota retaining the top spot as the most popular car with Louth buyers, followed by Volkswagen, Renault, Nissan and Ford. The most popular model was the Renault Clio, followed by the Hyundai Tuscon and the Toyota Corolla.
While there was a huge decline in the number of used cars imports during the first two months of the year, there was a 18.79% in March compared to the previous year, meaning that so far this year, used car imports are down by 7.91 per cent on 2020.
‘With dealers still able to operate on a click and deliver basis, new car sales are only marginally back on last year,’ said Brian Cooke SIMI Director General. However, this does not tell the real story. The first quarter of each year is the key selling period for the Irish Motor Industry, and new car sales in Q1 when compared to the same period in pre- COVID 2019 are down 25%, or nearly 16,000 cars. This represents lost revenue to the sector in excess of €500 million and lost taxation to the Exchequer of €170 million. With the lockdown now extended into April, the Industry will struggle to make up this lost business. In this context and in light of dealers’ ability to transact in a low risk outdoor environment, it is vital that we do re-open at the start of May to allow dealers sell both new and used cars, and to protect local employment. On a more positive note, it is encouraging to see the increases in the sale of Electric Cars and PHEVs despite the restricted trading environment.’