The January Car Sales figures are in, and the traditionally busiest month for car retail is usually a bellwether to how the year is going to go. Despite worries about a wobbly economy and continued supply problems, it has been a strong start – with sales in January up 9.4% versus the same month in 2022 – with 27,364 registrations.
- Market up 9.4%.
- EV Sales are up 36.5%.
- Toyota and Hyundai dominate once more.
Top 10 Selling Cars so far in 2023
- Hyundai Tucson
- Toyota Yaris Cross
- Toyota Yaris
- Toyota CH-R
- Toyota Corolla
- Dacia Sandero
- Kia Sportage
- Hyundai Kona
- Volkswagen T-Roc
- Hyundai IONIQ 5
Toyota and Hyundai were out of the traps incredibly quickly as usual. Both brands usually have strong levels of stock on the ground at year-end and always have a positive January, which is no different.
A strong start from Toyota
Toyota is slightly back on their astonishing January 2022, 11.7% back on this month last year. However, they still command 16.2% of the market, with Hyundai not far behind with 13.5% and Volkswagen in 3rd with huge growth, 47% improvement on January 2021 at 9.3% market share. A great start by Skoda in 4th place, up 20% with a 7.5% market share and Kia rounded up the top 5, up almost 11% to 6.1% market share.
Once again, the Hyundai Tucson shows no signs of being knocked off its perch as the best-selling model, with 6.3% of all new cars sold in January being Tucson’s ahead of the massively improving Toyota Yaris Cross, which has now sold almost 60% than it did in January last year.
Electric Vehicle sales are up 36.5%
Good news for CO2 emissions, but maybe less so for the government tax take, 40% of all new cars in January were from the A0 CO2 band. There were 3,682 electric vehicles registered in January, 36.5% more than in January 2023, meaning 13.5% of the Irish car market in January came from EV sales. Both petrol and diesel sales are up, 29% and 11% respectively. And as you might have guessed, Automatic Transmission dominates; now, 58.1% of all new cars sold are automatic. As for colour – 36% of all new cars sold in January were grey.
