The new Renault Clio was Ireland’s bestselling small car in January 2020!The Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) has released the official 201 new vehicle registration figures for January.
New car registrations for January are down 3.5% (31,251) when compared to January 2019 (32,370).
The top 10 bestselling car brands in January 2020 were 1. Toyota, 2. Hyundai, 3. Volkswagen, 4. Skoda, 5. Ford, 6. Renault, 7. Nissan, 8. Kia, 9. Peugeot and 10. SEAT.
The top 5 bestselling car brands in January 2020 were 1. Toyota Corolla, 2. Hyundai Tucson, 3. Ford Focus, 4. Hyundai Kona and 5. Renault Clio.
The bestselling car in January 2020 was the Toyota Corolla.
Light Commercial vehicles (LCV) are up 2.1% (5,666) compared to January last year (5,548).
HGV (Heavy Goods Vehicle) registrations are showing an increase of 8.8% (385) in comparison to January 2019 (354).
Used car imports saw a 26.4% (6,623) decline in January when compared with January 2019 (9,003).
The average CO2 emissions (108.33g/km) relating to a new car sold in January 2020 reduced by 5.8% on the comparison (115.04g/km) to the same time last year.
Diesel continues to remain the most popular engine type (42.1%) following by petrol (39.6), hybrid (13.6%), which gained a significant increase in market share, along with electric (2.9%) and plug-in hybrid (1.8%).
New electric car registrations increased with 898 registered in January 2020, compared to 799 in January 2019.
Commenting on the new vehicle registrations figures Brian Cooke, SIMI Director General said:
“January is the most important selling month for new cars. In this regard, it is very disappointing to see a reduction in new car sales compared to January last year, the fourth consecutive year in which there has been a fall. On a more positive note, there has been a reduction of nearly 6% in the average CO2 emissions from new cars registered in January, underlining the Industry’s commitment to reducing emissions from new cars. The Industry is fully committed to further significant reductions in emissions in the years ahead. New cars ultimately displace the oldest most environmentally damaging cars in the National Fleet and in order for Ireland to benefit fully from these technology improvements the new car market needs to be much stronger than it currently is and Government policy should support this. January also saw a significant decline in used imports, and while it may be too early to tell, the introduction of the NOx charge on January 1st appears to have reduced demand for older used imports.”