Pressure on emissions is driving up new-car prices

NEW car costs are being relentlessly driven upwards by ever more stringent emissions tests.

At the recent launch of the new KIA Ceed SW and the updated Sportage compact SUV, KIA Ireland’s managing director James Brooks, in response to a question, estimated that of the €1,200 increase in cost for the revised Sportage, somewhere between €400 to €500, is down to the more stringent WLTP-derived emission results.

He estimated, for example, that having AdBlue on board adds €300. AdBlue is used with a car’s selective catalytic reduction system (SCR) to cut emissions of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) on diesels.

The amounts of money Mr Brooks outlined just go to show how prices are being constantly stretched by the new system.

Having to pay so many hundreds of euro more for a new car at a time when an estimated 100,000 second-hands are expected to pour in from the UK this year is bound to increasingly impact on people’s decision-making about what and where they buy. Despite the additional burden, Mr Brooks, in a brief market overview, forecast that there would be around 124,000 new-car registrations by the end of this year.

He also confirmed that SUVs are now the single largest selling car type on the market (25pc of the total). That is something most people would agree with, purely from seeing the sheer number of compact versions on the roads.

It used to be that ordinary family saloons and hatches outnumbered other segments. Now they have slipped to second (around 22pc), Mr Brooks revealed.

Other industry experts suggest the family-car decline is accelerating.

Ford Ireland chief Ciaran McMahon recently said we could be witnessing the demise of family saloons as we have known them for generations, such has been the number of people turning their backs on them to buy SUVs.

He has spoken of the impact that so many used imports, especially diesels, is having, but admitted that finding a solution to that Brexit-related issue is far from easy.