THE NEW CAR market struggled somewhat in March 2018, according to the latest figures released by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) and DoneDeal.

In comparison to the same month in 2017, new car registrations in March saw a decline of 10.6 per cent, with a total of 17,780 units registered – though it’s worth noting that March did feature two snow days and a public holiday.

This drop follows a stable February which was down just 0.43 per cent on the previous year.

Of the 71,821 new cars registered in the first quarter of the year, the most popular was the Nissan Qashqai (2,859 units), followed by the Hyundai Tucson (2,598 units) and the Volkswagen Golf (2,172 units).

Aside from the actual models being registered, what is interesting is a continuing shift away from diesel.

In the passenger car market, there was a decrease of 20 per cent in diesel engines compared to the first quarter of 2017, while petrol registrations increased in the same period by 19.8 per cent.

The petrol electric hybrid figures show an even larger jump, with registrations growing by 64.8 per cent and plug-in hybrid petrol cars up by 108 per cent year-on-year.

The number of pure electric cars decreased by 5 per cent based on the same period last year, though this could have more to do with the actual supply of cars rather than a drop in demand.

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