What was named the 2016 best-selling new car brand in Ireland?

Hyundai looked set to take the 2016 crown until a last minute surge saw Toyota overtake and win with a huge 15,530 new car registrations, leaving Volkswagen and Ford as runners-up.

Leading the sales for most of the year, Hyundai was beaten to the top spot after Toyota recorded an impressive 258 new registrations in December, over half of the new car market registrations for just one month. 

The best-selling individual model of the year was the Hyundai Tucson with 7,425 registrations, just ahead of the Volkswagen Golf with 5,011.

Overall, the new car market saw an impressive growth in 2016, with a 17.5% increase in registrations from 2015, the highest sales total in nearly a decade.

Ireland’s 10 top selling models in 2016

Over in the premium sector, Audi continues to hold on to the top spot with 6,066 registrations ahead of competitors BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

In the commercial vehicle market, sales of lightweight commercial vehicles rose 18.3% in 2016 while new registrations of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) were up 31.3% on 2015.

Market Trends

The growing preference of lower emission vehicles was evident with over 78% of new cars sold falling into the lower tax band (with emissions of less than 121 g/km).

Dominating 70% of sales, Diesel still remains the fuel of choice for consumers however there was a clear rise in the popularity of Hybrids which increased from 1,616 registrations in 2015 to 2,868 in 2016. Electric vehicles on the other hand, fell 15.87% with only 392 registrations.

References

McAleer, M. (2017). Toyota overtakes Hyundai to become best-selling new car. Available: http://www.irishtimes.com/business/retail-and-services/toyota-overtakes-hyundai-to-become-best-selling-new-car-1.2924274. Last accessed 18/01/2017.