Business

Motor sales stall with just 118 new cars registered in April

Mood in industry was gloomy even before Covid-19 brought business to a sudden stop

A vehicle carrier transports new Citroëns at the port of Zeebrugge in Belgium. Photograph: Olivier Matthys/Bloomberg

Sat Apr 11 2020 - 05:03

During the first nine days of April, 118 new cars were registered. That might seem like a lot during the lockdown, but it’s a truly frightening figure for the motor trade.

Of those 118 new cars, 30 were registered to State agencies. The rest are likely to have been pre-order deliveries.

Last year 2,296 new cars were registered over the same nine-day period. And 2019 was hardly a bumper year.

Unsurprisingly, not one hire car has been registered this month. So far this year 3,056 new cars have been sold to the hire drive sector, down 71 per cent on last year. In a normal year, hire cars make up 15 per cent of new car sales. With little foreign tourist trade expected in the coming months, the collapse of this market is going to put a major dent in this year’s final tally on motor sales.

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Every industry is suffering right now, but the mood music in the motor trade has been sombre for some time. Unlike many other sectors of the economy, the motor trade didn’t get the bounce others did after the last recession.

While other retailers reaped the benefits of increased consumer spending, uncertainty driven by government attempts to push people away from buying petrol and diesel cars, combined with the lure of cheaper used imports, managed to keep the Irish motor trade in tumult.

It’s hardly surprising that many in the trade reckon some showrooms will not reopen when the lockdown ends.

The problems at local level are magnified on the global stage. The motoring world is going through a fundamental revolution, from fossil fuel to electric power. The changeover is costing hundreds of billions of euro in investment. Car makers’ finances were being stretched to the limit even before sales stopped due to the Covid-19 crisis.

Already, many buyers were opting to keep their wallets closed while they waited to see who would come up with the best cars for the new electric age.

In recent times China has been a cash cow for most car makers, and they will be eager to get production there restarted and sales under way. But even that might not be enough. On Friday Renault sought €5 billion in government-backed loans from the French government to weather the pandemic. Expect other manufacturers to follow suit in seeking state aid.

Back home, many dealers will be looking for help to keep the show on the road, but, for some, this crisis may well prove to be the knockout blow.

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