Ireland Vehicle Sales Continue Backslide in January

Irish new-car sales start the year slower than expected, with registrations down 18.8% from like-2012 to 17,293 units as a new number-plate system fails to provide a hoped-for boost, the Society of the Irish Motor Industry says.

“There has been a slower start to the year than we would have hoped, given that there appear to be some positive signs on consumer confidence, but our sector has not yet seen any positive impact from this,” SIMI Director General Alan Nolan says in a statement.

The January result follows a poor 2012 for the Irish car market, when registrations fell more than 12% to 76,256 units.

“It is, however, early days yet to judge how the year will pan out based on just one month’s figures, so we will all be following next month’s progress very closely,” Nolan says.

Commercial-vehicle sales also fell, down 9.3% to 2,012 units.

Nolan says the new number-plate system was expected to start slowly, as the change only was announced in December, and he anticipates increased interest.

The number-plate system was introduced in an effort to spread new-car sales throughout the year. Under the previous format, 80% of new cars were sold in the first half of the year, including 53% in the first quarter. The fourth quarter accounted for only 6% of deliveries.

Now, from January to June of this year, all new cars will have a number plate that includes the numeral 131. From July to December the plate will show 132. The “1” after the 13 represents the first half of the year and the “2” represents the second half.

Volkswagen began the year in first place in the new-car segment with sales down 18.4% to 2,137 units; followed by Toyota, plunging 46% to 1,853; and Ford, tumbling 31.5% to 1,839.

The Ford Focus was the best-selling model for January, despite a 35.7% skid to 825 units, ahead of the VW Golf, down 2.1% to 789, and the Nissan Qashqai, down 9.6% to 659.

Ford resumed market leadership in the CV segment with 432 units for 12.5% of the market. VW followed closely with 419.