SIMI has released the official car registration statistics for November 2010. Last month’s sales bring the number of new cars sold so far this year to 87,988, which represents a 54 percent increase on 2009. The month of November itself witnessed a 195 percent increase in car sales compared to last November. The scrappage scheme continues to be an important driver of new car sales, with 16,469 cars now sold under this initiative in 2010.
Ford is still the overall best-selling make in Ireland, with 12.68 percent market share so far in 2010, just ahead of Toyota with 12.6 percent. VW comes in third with 11.72 percent. Renault’s Mégane is the best-selling individual model, however, with 3,968 units registered since the start of the year, many of these under the scrappage scheme. The VW Golf and Ford Focus slot in to second and third place respectively.
Commenting on the figures, Director General of SIMI, Alan Nolan said, “No matter what happens in the Budget, the motor industry is very grateful for the positive impact of scrappage during 2010. This has fuelled the recovery in new car sales and in business overall, including an increase of over 3,200 employees over last year but this recovery is clearly fragile as we have seen from some recent business failures. We believe that the benefits of extending scrappage are very clear.”