Irish Car Sales Plunge, LCV Sales Inch Up in October

New-car sales in Ireland continued their downward spiral in October, with deliveries plummeting 51.8% to 1,569 units.

The Society of the Irish Motor Industry says the latest report puts the 10-month total up just 2.6% to 88,744 units.

Toyota Ireland’s sales leader through October.

Only five brands managed to sell in triple figures for the month as Volkswagen topped the list with 236 units, ahead of Toyota (210), Renault (192), Opel (157) and Ford (118).

Toyota leads the Irish new-car market year-to-date, selling 11,486 units to VW’s 11,007 and Ford’s 10,354.

Light-commercial-vehicle sales inched up 1.5% to 613 units in October for a 10-month total of 10,906 units, ahead 8.6%. VW led the month with 157 units, followed by Renault’s 139 and Ford’s 99.

Ford has a comfortable lead in the LCV segment after 10 months with sales of 2,308 units, with VW second with 1,702 and Renault third with 1,624.

SIMI President Gerry Caffrey says the current registration-plate system, with the month and year of registration included on the number plate, is troublesome to the industry because of the seasonality of car sales.

“Nearly 50% of new cars are sold in the first quarter of the year, which puts huge pressure on resources, from staff to cash flow,” he says in a statement. “For those working in the industry, it is impossible to know if they will still be employed at the end of the year.”

SIMI proposes the addition of a special “identifier,” such as an extra character on the registration plate, for all vehicles registered after July 1.

That would create a second new-car sales peak that could generate an additional E20 million ($26.6 million) in value-added and vehicle-registration taxes a year, Caffrey says.