181 at a glance

Published on 2 July, 2018

The bestselling cars of 181 were the Nissan Qashqai (1), Hyundai Tucson (2), Volkswagen Golf (3), Ford Focus (4) and Skoda Octavia (5)

Overview

The Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) released new car sales figures for the year to date as the new 182 registration period kicks off.  The report shows that new car sales are down by 4.5 per cent on the same period last year, while used car imports up by 12.8 per cent.

SIMI Director General, Alan Nolan commented on the link between the two. ‘This is somewhat at odds with the growth in economic activity in the country but has to be seen in the context of the volume of used car imports which impact negatively on new car sales.’

In more positive news and reflecting an increase in industry investment, New Light Commercial Vehicle registrations are up by 5.7 per cent. New Heavy Commercial Vehicles have seen an increase of 110 per cent for the month of June compared to the same month last year though still down slightly by 1.1 per cent on the year to date.

Sales of electric cars continue to rise steadily with 529 sold between January and June, representing an increase of 44.1 per cent on the same period last year.

There were few surprises in the bestselling brands with Volkswagen coming out on top, followed by Toyota, Hyundai, Ford and Nissan. The bestselling cars of 181 were the Nissan Qashqai (1), Hyundai Tucson (2), Volkswagen Golf (3), Ford Focus (4) and Skoda Octavia (5).

Sinead McCann

Sinéad is our resident car tester who has the unenviable (-ok, slightly enviable) task of reviewing all the latest new cars to hit the market. You can follow her on Twitter @smcani and on Instagram @whatshedrives