Tough 2020 for the car industry

WE ALL know the impact that Covid-19 and the associated restrictions have had on wider society, and the car industry has suffered in a similar fashion as the economy struggled in 2020.

Figures released by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) at the end of September indicated that total new car registrations had fallen by some 25.8pc for the first nine months of this year when compared with the same period in 2019.

Despite that increase, the figures for the first eight months of the year were described as ‘recessionary figures’ as the purse strings were tightened for consumers due to many being out of work as coronavirus restrictions shut down many sectors of the economy.

Total car sales in the first nine months of this year showed a total of 84,535, which is down from 113,945 for the same period in 2019.

On the face of it this would appear to be a major drop, but when you delve into the detail the reasons for that become a little bit clearer.

The drop in new registrations for the hire-drive market, for example, if a large reason for these figures.

Totalling 18,346 registrations in 2019 – which was 16pc of the total number of new cars – it had fallen to 2,863 by September this year. This staggering drop is reflective of an absence of tourists in 2020, and shouldn’ t come as a surprise, but the sheer scale of it illustrates the challenges the motor industry has had to endure in the past nine months.

The close to 40000 people directly and indirectly employed in the motor industry will be hopeful that the new VRT band rates in place from January 1 st, which encourage motorists to buy environmentally friendly cars as the tax is based upon emissions rates, might stimulate more movement in the sector.

However, it will take some time for the industr y to recover from a challenging 2020, but the advances in technology and movement towards electric cars means it is a time of real change for many in the motoring industry.