New car sales on the rise in Mayo with 8 percent increase in 2024

THE number of new car registrations for Mayo for 2024 has risen by 8.57 percent compared to last year but the number of electric vehicles sold has fallen dramatically.

The Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) released their official 241 new vehicle registrations statistics for March which showed that car registrations for the month were down 16 percent (14,936) when compared to March 2023 (17,685).

At a local level, SIMI also released the number of car registrations for the first three months of 2024 which showed that in Mayo there were 1,090 new vehicle registrations. This is a rise of 8.57 percent compared to 2023 when 1,004 vehicles were registered.

There has been a sharp decrease in the number of electric vehicles registered in Mayo so far in 2024 with 77 electric vehicles registered compared to 110 for the same period last year. This represents a 30 percent drop in the number of electric vehicles registered in the county.

Commenting on the latest figures, Brian Cooke, SIMI Director General said that after a strong start to the first two months of the year, March proved to be much more difficult for the new car market.
“New car sales showed a 16 percent decrease in the same month last year, although sales for the first quarter remain 8 percent ahead of 2023. Sales of light and heavy commercial vehicles both show growth in registrations for March. Sales across all fuel types were behind last year, with the Electric Vehicle segment seeing a notable decline.

“This highlights the ongoing challenge of transitioning to electrification, as we move into the mainstream car market. The electrification of the fleet requires increased collaboration between all stakeholders to bridge this current chasm in the market.

“For the Industry, this means investment and delivery of EV technology. For the Government, this means increased support in terms of extension of current incentives, including purchase grants and Benefit-In -Kind (BIK) relief for companies, and working with private enterprise to upgrade the national charging infrastructure, to boost consumer confidence in making the switch to electric vehicles,” he said.

In the new car market share by engine type for 2024, petrol cars lead the new car market at 33.37 percent, followed by diesel at 23.05 percent, then hybrid (petrol electric) at 21.33 percent, electric at 12.69 percent, and plug-in electric hybrid at 7.92 percent.

The top five selling new car brands for 2024 were Toyota, Skoda, Volkswagen, Hyundai and Kia while the top five new car models were the Hyundai Tucson followed by the Skoda Octavia, Kia Sportage, Toyota Rav 4 and the Toyota Yaris Cross.

The top five selling electric vehicles are Volkswagen, Hyundai, Tesla, BYD and Kia.