It looks like everyone is a winner in terms of revenue and jobs with early sales figures for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles showing another upward curve.

Following last year’s lift the new trend suggests that 2015 will be another very positive year for car companies and for garages. The all-important first ten-day figures supplied by the market show that most car brand’s sales are considerably higher compared to the same time last year and that the motor industry will be a major contributor to the country’s economic recovery.

Toyota has flown out of the blocks early with sales of their cars putting them in top spot with an increase of 14 percent. That equates to sales of 1,678 new car sold during the opening ten days of the year compared to 1,465 for the same period in 2014. That gives Toyota a market share of 14%.  Hyundai are continuing their assault and have jumped into second place with 1,495 versus 1,198 last year, a sizeable 25 percent up giving the Korean brand a total market share of 12.5 percent. Ford, with a market share of 9.8 percent are currently in third position with an even bigger jump of 42 percent; 1,163 compared to 819 in 2014.

Last year’s top selling brand, Volkswagen lie in fourth place at the moment with a market share of just over 7 percent, Audi lead the premium brands with market share of over 4 percent and an overall position of eight place in the table. 
However, the biggest increase goes to Nissan, up 94 percent on the same period in fifth place with big jumps also recorded by Kia (50%) and BMW (46%). At the top end of the market there were eight new Porsche cars sold so far while at the less expensive end, Dacia have increased their sales by 11 percent.

Overall, sales so far this year are up by 23.5 percent with 11,878 new cars sold in the first ten days compared to 9,617 in 2014. Light commercial vehicles are also showing a healthy increase; 1,843 versus 1,170 last year, up 57.5 percent.
The early figures confirm that the motor industry is in for another bumper year. Most commentators believe that the sales of new cars for this year will be near or over 100,000. Closer scrutiny of these stats suggests that that figure will be surpassed if the early trend continues throughout the year and could go as high as 115,000. It, of course, means extra revenue in VRT and V.A.T for the exchequer as well as many more new jobs created by the industry because of the continuing upturn.