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Assessing the Covid impact on car market sales
Reopening of car showrooms may see uptick in sales
about 14 hours ago
The pandemic changed the traditional car sales process. Photograph: iStock
The most obvious effect of Covid-19 on the car market has been a quite dramatic fall in sales of new vehicles. “The new car market for last year and this year has fallen through the floor,” says Deloitte director Andrew Byrne.
New vehicle registrations on the rise again after tough pandemic year
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The Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) today released their official new vehicle statistics on new car registrations and the results come as welcome news the motor industry.
To present a more accurate picture of the new vehicle registrations, it is important to compare registrations totals with the same period in 2019 (pre-COVID) when businesses were fully operational.
55,207 new cars were registered to date in 2021 compared to 50,138 for the same period in 2020 but figures still have a way to climb to reach pre-pandemic levels - 73,030 in 2019.
Light Commercials Vehicles (LCV) saw an increase of 2,385 registrations compared to April last year 231 and 1,798 for the same month in 2019.
How many new cars have you spotted? Motor industry reveal how many 2021 cars sold in each county
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Just 218 new cars were sold in Leitrim this year, which is down from 232 in the same period last year.
The Society of the Irish Motor Industry released their official new vehicle statistics
For the month of April 596 new electric vehicles were registered compared to 50 in April 2020. So far this year 3,414 new electric cars have been registered in comparison to 1,700 on the same period 2020. Electric Vehicle and Plug-in Hybrids and Hybrids continue to increase their market share, with their combined market share now over 22.61%. Diesel now accounts for 36.86%, Petrol 32.06%, Hybrid 16.66%, Electric 6.18% and Plug-in Electric Hybrid 5.95%
Car sales up in April but down compared to 2019
Updated / Tuesday, 4 May 2021
14:29
The popularity of electric cars has continued to grow, with the engine type making up 6.2% of sales in the first four months of 2021
Business Journalist
The number of new cars registered in April was substantially higher year-on-year, according to the Society of the Irish Motor Industry, but was lower than the same month of 2019.
More than 7,160 new cars were registered last month, up 1,989% compared to the 343 registered in April 2020.
That was in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, when heavy restrictions saw most economic activity grind to a halt.