Bank of Ireland head of Motor Sector Stephen Healy reveals the unstoppable drive of electric vehicle sales.
February look-back
In the month of February, new passenger car (PC) sales declined 12.2% year-on-year (y-o-y) to 12,031 units, Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) sales declined 30.9% y-o-y to 2,292 units and used imports declined 33.9% y-o-y to 3,807 units.
“In the first two months of 2022, sales of electrically chargeable vehicles (ECVs) account for 20.1% of new car sales”
PC Registrations:
In the first 2 months, new passenger car registrations declined 4.6% year on year to 37,058 units. Toyota holds the #1 position with 18.1% market share, followed by Hyundai with 14.4% in #2, Skoda with 7.6% in #3, Kia with 7.5% in #4 and Volkswagen with 6.9% in #5.
LCV Registrations: In the first 2 months, new light commercial vehicle registrations declined 12.0% year on year to 7,341 units. Ford holds the #1 position with 26.6% market share, followed by Volkswagen with 16.6% in #2, Opel with 11.2% in #3, Toyota with 10.7% in #4 and Citroen with 9.0% in #5.
Used Imports: Registrations of used imports declined 37.6% year on year (to 7,848 units) in the first 2 months of 2022.
Market News
Last month, we commented that this year’s news is likely to be dominated by supply and electric vehicles. So it won’t come as a surprise that vehicle sales continue to be constrained in the first two months due to ongoing chip supply shortages in automotive manufacturing.
Motor dealers continue to report strong consumer demand despite longer lead times. The supply challenge varies by manufacturer as they grapple with global shortages of microchips that govern electrical systems in vehicles. It is predicted that chip shortages will be in place for most of 2022 with vehicle supply improvements expected in the second half of the year.
A new report on electric vehicles was released in February by Arup and economist Jim Power, commissioned on behalf of the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI). The SIMI released findings of the independent report that proposes incentives to remove older, more polluting, vehicles from our roads and increase the number of zero and low emission vehicles.
The report highlights the need to create a greater supply of used electric vehicles (EVs) in the market and to make them affordable to those without the means to buy a new electric vehicle. A key enabler of this would be if government switched state vehicles to EVs and turned them regularly to create a bigger EV used car market.
The report also comments on the need to increase the charging infrastructure to meet increased consumer demand for EV’s over the next decade. The full report is available at the following link and is worth a read: https://www.simi.ie/assets/1/environment/reducing-light-fleetcarbon-emissions-to-achievegovernment-targets.pdf
In the first two months of 2022, sales of electrically chargeable vehicles (ECVs) account for 20.1% of new car sales. Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) account for 11.7%. Combined sales of ECVs and Hybrid vehicles account for over 45% of new car sales this year.
