Volkswagen falls to fifth in new car market in Ireland for 2016

Volkswagen, the best-selling new car brand in Ireland in 2015, has fallen back to fifth place, according to initial sales figures for the first 10 days. Volkswagen's market share has slipped from 12.3 per cent last year to 7.8 per cent for the start of this year.

Nearly 15,000 new cars were registered over the 10-day period, up 26 per cent on last year. In what is expected to be a bumper year for new car sales, Hyundai is currently the best-selling brand for 2016, followed by Toyota, Ford and Renault.

Volkswagen Group has been at the centre of a global scandal since September after admitting it fitted 11 million vehicles – nearly 116,000 in Ireland – with software designed to cheat US emissions tests. A recall of these cars is due to begin later this month but it is not expected to be completed before the end of this year. The cars affected are across the Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda, Seat and Volkswagen commercial brands.

The total market share for the Volkswagen Group across all its brands has fallen from 24.75 per cent last year to 16.6 per cent so far this month.

In the premium market Volkswagen Group's Audi brand has also been overtaken by arch-rival BMW. However its market share has fallen marginally, from 4.2 per cent in 2015 to 3.35 per cent so far this month.

Snapshot

The 10-day figures offer the first snapshot of the state of the new car market, although it often fluctuates towards the end of the first month as car orders are delivered to customers.

Last year Volkswagen was in fourth place after the first 10 days with 7.3 per cent share but still ended the year as the best-selling brand. According to Lars Himmer, chief executive of Volkswagen Group Ireland: “It is very positive to see fast growth for the Irish car market continuing from 2015 into the first days of January. There is no doubt that the last few months have been very challenging for Volkswagen, so we are even more pleased for this first sign of 2016 of growth and not least to see our market share slightly higher than in the same [10-day] period last year.”

It’s a major achievement by Hyundai, nonetheless. The Korean brand’s sales have risen dramatically in recent years as it moved from being a budget brand in the early 1990s to becoming a mainstream rival to the likes of Ford, Toyota and Volkswagen. Sales of its popular crossover and SUV range have been bolstered by the arrival of more competitive family saloon and hatchback models along with a noticeable improvement in quality.

Top model

The best-selling car over the first 10 days of 2016 is the new Hyundai Tucson, with nearly double the new registrations of its nearest rival, the Toyota Corolla.

Predictions for 2016 new car sales in Ireland within the motor trade suggest they could exceed 150,000. The last time the market achieved that level of sales was in 2008.