The new Hyundai Tuscon on test for Changing Lanes!
The new Hyundai Tuscon continues to sell well in Ireland

The Society of the Irish Motor Industry has released the latest vehicle registration data for Ireland in April 2021.

7,166 new cars were registered for the month of April compared to 343 in April 2020 and 8,904 in April 2019.

55,207 new cars have been registered year to date compared to 50,138 for the same period in 2020 (+10.11) and 73,030 in 2019 (-24.41%).

For the month of April, 596 new electric vehicles were registered. So far this year 3,414 new electric cars have been registered in Ireland.

Electric Vehicle, 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%

The top five bestselling car brands in April were: 1.Toyota, 2.Volkswagen, 3.Hyundai, 4. Skoda and 5. Ford. The bestelling car models were 1.Hyundai Tucson, 2.Toyota Corolla, 3.Toyota RAV 4, 4. Ford Focus and 5.Volkswagen Tiguan.

The bestselling car in Ireland in April was the Hyundai Tucson.

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. Year to date 13,722 new LCVs were registered an increase on last year’s 9,500 (+44.4%) and 12,853 on 2019 (+6.67%).

Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV) saw 325 registrations in April when compared to 96 in April 2020 and 305 April 2019. Year to date HGV’s registrations total 1,223 compared with 1,004 in 2020 (+21.81%) and 1,189 in 2019 (+2.86%).

5,676 used cars were imported in April 2021, compared with 200 imports in April 2020, a decrease on the 8,887 imports in April 2019. Year to date used imports are up 36.4% (24,095) on 2020 (17,666) and down 32.54% on 2019 (35,719).

Brian Cooke, SIMI Director General commenting:
“While new cars sales to the end of April have now overtaken sales for the same period last year, they are still over 24% behind pre-COVID 2019. The investment in on-line selling platforms over the last year and the ability to offer a click and deliver service to car buyers has been a lifeline to the Industry during this difficult time. The phased re-opening of showrooms announced by Government last week has been welcomed by the Industry, and retailers are cautiously optimistic about car sales, both new and used, in the weeks and months ahead. It is hoped that pent up demand allied with the increase in personal savings will see customers returning to showrooms. It should be underlined that car retailing operates in large open spaces, and with low footfall and the ability to social distance well beyond the recommended two metres, showrooms are a safe environment for customers.”.