61,000 new cars registered in 2021 'encouraging' for motor sector recovery

Diesel now accounts for 36.39%, Petrol 31.89%, Hybrid 16.63%, Electric 6.46% and Plug-in Electric Hybrid 6.21%.

Tue, 01 Jun, 2021 - 14:00

Greg Murphy

The registration of 5,955 new cars in May, and 61,147 in 2021 so far, has been described as "encouraging" as figures have begun to climb back to pre-pandemic levels.

New car registrations took a sharp drop in May of 2020 when much of the country was ground to a halt by Covid-19 restrictions, with just 1,741 new cars, compared with 6,320 in the same month of 2019.

More than 61,000 new cars have been registered in 2021, a rise of 17.9% since the previous year when just 51,879 cars were registered in the same five-month period.

Dublin saw the highest number of new car registrations, climbing to 23,874 in the first five months of this year, an increase on 19,402 in the same period last year.

In Cork, 7,609 new cars have been registered in 2021, a 13.96% increase on the 2020 figure of 6,677.

Interestingly, Leitrim saw the same number of new car registrations (244) in the first five months of 2021 as it did in the same period of 2020.

Brian Cooke, director-general of the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) says while the figures for May are encouraging, new car sales in 2021 are still 23% behind pre-pandemic figures.

Mr Cooke says the "strong growth" will be aided by the reopening of car showrooms and an expected boost in spending has retailers "optimistic" for the rest of 2021 and into next year.

Claims about environmental benefits of hybrid vehicles 'greenwashing'

Mr Cooke says it is "hugely encouraging" to see sales EVs and hybrids increasing, with the figures from 2021 so far closing in on full year volume for 2020.

Meanwhile, in May, 541 new electric vehicles were registered - a strong increase on 2020 when just 147 EVs were registered in the same month.

The first five months of 2021 saw 3,952 electric cars being registered, in comparison to 1,847 in the same period of last year.

Market share for EVs and hybrid vehicles continues to increase.

Diesel now accounts for 36.39%, Petrol 31.89%, Hybrid 16.63%, Electric 6.46% and Plug-in Electric Hybrid 6.21%.

Mr Cooke says it is "hugely encouraging" to see sales EVs and hybrids increasing, with the figures from 2021 so far closing in on full year volume for 2020.

He has called on the Government to include "ambitious state funding for the EV project, both in terms of the rolling out of national EV charging infrastructure as well as vehicle grant supports for both private and corporate car buyers.”

There were just over 6,000 used cars imported into Ireland in May, rising from just 858 in the same month of last year, and a decrease from 8,347 in 2019.

In the first five months of this year used imports are up 62.63% (30,126) on 2020 (18,524) and down 33.15% on 2019 (45,066).

Light Commercials Vehicles (LCV) have also seen an increase of 2,316 registrations compared to May last year at just 500 and 1,717 for the same month in 2019.

Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV) saw 202 registrations in May when compared to 95 in May 2020 and 298 in May 2019.

Top-selling car brands May 2021: