January sees fall in new car sales and continued major growth in used imports
Figures released today show that new car sales in January 2018 have decreased slightly on last year.
Motorcheck.ie data reveals that 37,000 new cars were sold last month, compared to 39,000 in January 2017.
It represents a drop of about 5% on last year.
A large surge of 4,500 new cars registered on the last day of the month gave the figures a boost as manufacturers looked to hit their targets.
Diesel continues to be the biggest loser in new car sales with a 17% decrease (4,400 cars) for the period, whilst petrol car sales increased by almost 13% (1,600 cars).
The Government incentive on BIK announced in the last budget did nothing to boost the sales of All-Electric powered vehicles with sales in that sector actually decreasing by 38%.
Despite this, sales in the Hybrid-Electric sector surged by 1,000, an increase of 75% on last year.
The Light Commercial sector rose by 6% with 6,700 units registered in Jan 2018 compared to 6,300 in 2017.
Used imports continued to grow with a 20% increase last month compared to the same month last year. Despite the downturn in diesel sales in the new car market, used diesel imports were up 17% on last year.
Michael Rochford, Managing Director of Motorcheck.ie, said: “the slight decrease in new car sales again in January are largely in line with expectations given the milestones that were reached in 2016 and the downward trend experienced last year. There is no cause for panic as figures are still relatively strong.
"The staggering statistic is the continued high growth in used cars imports. Given that there was an increase of 67% in Jan 2017 a further increase of 20% in Jan 2018 is massive.
"Diesel values in the UK have suffered in recent times and this has translated into even more value for prospective buyers of Diesels in Ireland."
