New car registrations in Northern Ireland have motored ahead of other UK nations with an increase of 8.5% in 2024 so far, a report has said.
And the Kia Sportage has been our most popular car with 1,432 sold – followed by the Ford Puma, Hyundai Tucson, Vauxhall Corsa and Hyundai Kona, in order of popularity.
Latest monthly figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said there had been 39,197 new cars sold here in the first nine months of 2024.
The rise of 8.48% on the same period in 2023 was much stronger than that in England, Scotland and Wales, where new car registrations were up by 4.1%, 5.8% and 3.2% respectively.
Read more
But looking at September alone, Northern Ireland’s new car registration growth was less impressive. At 4,617, new car registrations were up 1.27% compared to September 2023.
That compared with an increase of 3.2% in Scotland, and growth of 0.99% in England.
However, there was a fall of 4.8% in new car registrations in Wales – bringing growth in the UK as a whole to 0.98%. September is traditionally a bumper month for the industry in Great Britain due to the release of new number plates
The SMMT said that UK-wide, private demand for new diesel cars was growing faster than for pure battery electrics.
It said registrations of new diesel cars for private buyers in September grew by 17.1% compared with the same month in 2023, up 1,367 units.
That is compared with a 3.6% year-on-year rise for pure battery electrics – up 410 units – despite heavy discounting by manufacturers.
The SMMT said car makers are on course to “spend at least £2bn on discounting electric vehicles (EVs)” this year in an effort to offset the “underlying paucity of demand”.
The SMMT and senior UK leaders at major vehicle manufacturers such as Ford, Stellantis, JLR and Volkswagen Group have written to Chancellor Rachel Reeves calling for urgent support to encourage more consumers to switch to electric motoring, ahead of her Budget on October 30.
The signatories called for measures such as halving Vat on new EV purchases and reducing VAT on public charging from 20% to 5% to match the home charging rate.