Snow not only reason for slow sales

MARCH proved a troubling month for importers and dealers, with sales of new cars down by 10.5% on the same month last year, a consequence of the snow and the early Easter, both of which curtailed the number of sales days. Well, that’s the shine the industry is putting on it, but it seems to reinforce a trend. Sales in the year to date are running at 71,842, compared with 75,982 at this point in 2017, a drop of 5.5%. Only light commercial vehicles have bucked the trend, with sales up by 5.4%, an indicator that economic growth is continuing, even if consumer confidence doesn’t seem to be following suit. Volkswagen was the big winner in that market, with sales up 13.6% to give it a market share of over 20%. As we have noted before, imports are the big issue, as the Brexitvote effect on sterling has made them more attractive. Despite a dip in sales of imports in March, the figure for the year shows an increase of 9.5%, at 23,893. That’s almost exactly one-third of the number of new cars sold, a sign of just how many cars are arriving from Northern Ireland and Great Britain. The most astonishing story of the year has been the speed with which we’re returning to petrol after a decade of higher diesel sales. Diesel’s share of the market has dropped from 67% last year to 56% so far in 2018, reflecting nervousness not only about falsified emissions tests, but also about moves by many city councils in Europe to ban diesel altogether. The problem here is that while older diesel engines emit various pollutants that are deleterious to human health, they still produce lower carbon emissions. The move over to petrol from diesel will make it harder for Ireland to stick within its CO2 targets, as the average emissions of new cars have increased this year by 1.5 grams per kilometre, making for a total of around an extra 2,000 tonnes of carbon produced. More troubling is the fact that imports are even less environmentally friendly, with average emissions of 121.1g/km, compared with the new car market’s 113.2g/km.