Car sales in Ireland during the month of February rose 17% year-on-year as 13,643 vehicles hit the road for the first time, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Overall, 17,638 new vehicles were licensed last month, an increase of 16% from the same month last year, with 2,717 new goods vehicles (+15.7%) and 1,278 new other vehicles (+7.6%) rounding out the total, which represented an increase of 1,971 from 11,672 from February 2021.
Some 21% of all new vehicles licensed for the first time in January and February were electric or plug-in hybrid electric, and the number of new electric cars licensed for the first time was also three times that of the same period in 2021, from 1,309 to 3,642.
Hyundai (2,088) was the most popular make of new private cars in February, ahead of Toyota (2,044), Kia (1,188), Skoda (1,065) and Volkswagen (873), with the top five brands representing 53% of new licences last month.
Conversely, the second-hand market has sunken over the past year, with total sales of imported used vehicles falling 39.1% or 3,549 since last February, from 9,073 to 5,524.
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Sales of used cars dropped 41.2% from 6,679 to 3,929 in February, while transactions involving used goods vehicles dropped 36.5% from 1,120 to 711, and sales of used other vehicles declined 30.6% from 1,275 to 884.
During the first two months of the year, the new vehicle market grew 4.7% as the number of new vehicles licensed rose 1,716 from 34,727 to 36,344 year-on-year, powered by a 14.6% or 567 increase in licenses for new goods vehicles, from 3,878 to 4,445.
The number of private cars sales over the period rose by 837 or 2.9% from 28,620 to 29,457 while the number of new other vehicles was up 213 or 9.6% from 2,229 to 2,442.
The pronounced slump in the used vehicle market was borne out over the opening two months of 2022, with licenses down 8,766 or 45.3% from 19,363 to 10,597, with the number of licenses for imported used cars down 7,190 or 48.6% from 14,805 to 7,615.
Used good vehicles for January and February dropped 729 or 35% from 2,080 to 1,351, and used other vehicles fell 847 or 34.2% from 2,478 to 1,631.
CSO statistician Nele van der Wielen noted that sales of new diesel cars are decreasing, with just 7,209 new cars licensed so far this year, compared to 10,306 during the same period in 2021.
Just under a quarter (24%) of new private cars licensed were diesel, compared to 36% a year ago, and for used imported diesel private cars, the total licensed was 3,126 compared with 8,906 a year ago.
(Pic: Getty Images)
