Ireland January-May vehicle sales up slightly

Source: Xinhua | 2018-06-12

A total of 152,631 vehicles were sold in Ireland in the first five months of this year, up slightly by 0.79 percent compared with the same period last year, according to the statistics released by Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Monday.

The total sales included 99,178 units of new vehicles and 53,453 units of used vehicles, said the CSO, adding that the new vehicle sales went down 3.5 percent year-on-year while that of used vehicles went up 9.8 percent compared with a year ago.

Of the total new vehicles sold in the year to May, private cars accounted for 79,321 units, down 5.3 percent year-on-year while goods vehicles accounted for 13,921 units, up 5 percent over a year ago, according to the CSO statistics.

Of the total used vehicles sold in the same period, private cars accounted for 42,199 units, up 11.5 percent; goods vehicles accounted for 6,447 units, up 9 percent, showed the statistics.

According to the CSO, Volkswagen was the most popular make among all the new private cars sold in May, accounting for 11.3 percent of the total which stood at 9,362 units, followed by Skoda (9.5 percent), Toyota (8.4 percent), Hyundai (8.3 percent), and Renault (7.4 percent). The combined sales of the top five makes accounted for nearly 45 percent of the total new private cars sold in May.

The CSO statistics also showed that most of the new private cars sold in Ireland were diesel-engined ones as the the sales of such cars in the first five months of this year accounted for nearly 56 percent of the total.