New Car Sales Soar 

Year-on-year car sales have increased by 28% up until February

Against February 2014’s new car sales figures, February 2015 has experienced a 24% increase. This, along with the 4% increase in January, means that comparatively, this year, new car sales are up 28% which works out to an additional 10,000 cars sold in the first two months of 2015. Used car sales figures have also seen an increase, although the spike has generally not been as dramatic compared to new cars, mainly because there is a narrower variety of good quality used cars. The number of cars imported from the UK has also decreased for the first two months of 2015, and the reasoning for this has mainly been attributed to the unattractive sterling exchange rate. Michael Rochford, Managing Director of Motorcheck.ie, said of the decline “We have now seen the second straight month where the number of used cars imported from the UK and Northern Ireland has decreased. This is unheard of in recent years. Demand in the used sector remain high so the knock-on effect for used car buyers is that used prices are remaining steady and choice is at a premium”.

Electric cars are also experiencing significant growth in terms of sales, by far the most significant is the sale of plug in hybrids, which saw an increase of over 1000%, up from 106 sales in January 2014 to 1203 sales in January 2015. 512 purely electric cars were sold in January, which is a 58% rise compared to figures from January 2014. Hybrid cars also saw an increase in sales, with a 16% and 55% rise respectively in both petrol and diesel models as consumers become increasingly interested in low carbon vehicles. Electric cars have risen in popularity, mainly due to the advertised low running costs and the variety of models. Last year saw sales of electric vehicles quadruple to 14,500, which formed the majority of the total number of electric cars registered ever since the government launched its £5,000 plug-in grant scheme in January 2011.

Having specialised in motor trade insurance for over 30 years, Tradex will be keeping a close eye on sales figures.