Ireland New-Car Sales Inch Up
Executive Summary
Despite a year-over-year sales increase in January, an industry official warns that higher taxes could contribute to a drop in deliveries from nearly 90,000 last year to 76,000 in full-year 2012.
Irish new-car sales edged up 1.5% to 21,313 units in January, but the industry doesn’t expect sustained growth.
January is crucial for Ireland’s motor industry as 50% of new-car sales take place in the first quarter of each year.
The Society of the Irish Motor Industry says the latest result compares with a prior-year 20,999 units that included 3,057 sales of new cars under the now-ended government scrappage scheme.
Light-commercial-vehicle deliveries rose 6.7% to 2,247 units in the month.
SIMI Director General Alan Nolan says despite the strong start he remains cautious about the outlook for the rest of 2012, predicting a sales drop of about 15% from year-ago to 76,000 units.
Noting a government review of the vehicle-registration tax and road tax proposed for implementation in 2013, Nolan says history has taught that review often means increase.
“The tax take from new cars has dropped significantly over recent years, so we understand the government's desire to safeguard its tax revenues,” he says.
Vehicle sales tumbled from 186,000 units in 2008 to just short of 90,000 last year. “A fall to 75,000 this year will result in a further reduction of E100 million ($131.5 million) in value-added tax and VRT receipts,” Nolan says.
“In the current market, it is very clear that any potential increase in taxation will simply result in fewer cars sold, which impacts directly on jobs. We would hope that the current review will result in a balanced approach that focuses on the critical issue of maintaining jobs.”
Toyota started the year strongly to lead the new-car segment with 3,422 sales, followed by Ford with 2,680 and Volkswagen with 2,622.
Volkswagen sold 498 light-commercial vehicles to topple long-time segment-leader Ford with 466.
