Boost for motor industry as new car registrations up 30% last year

New car registrations last year were up 30 per cent on 2014, new figures from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) show.

The total number of new car registrations was 124,945 compared with 96,284 in 2014.

The month of December registered a slight decrease of 1.44 per cent (342) compared with the same month in 2014 (347).

Light commercial vehicles for 2015 recorded a 42 per cent (23,722) increase on registrations last year (16,732). The month of December saw registrations perform strongly with a 50 per cent increase (236) compared to December 2014 (157).

Registrations for heavy goods vehicles were up nine per cent in 2015 (2,135).

SIMI director general Alan Nolan said 2015 was "a good year of continued recovery" for the motor Industry.

“We now look forward to 2016 with greater optimism and a real potential to see registrations return to normal levels that we have not seen since before 2008,” he said.

“Sales within the different sectors have performed well in 2015 and we would expect to see this improvement continue in the new year.”

Top Selling Makes for the Year 2015

1) Volkswagen 15,379

2) Toyota 13,109

3) Ford 12,050

4) Hyundai 11,484

5) Nissan 11,198

Top Selling Models for the Year 2015

1) Volkswagen Golf

2) Ford Focus

3) Nissan Qashqai

4) Skoda Octavia

5) Toyota Corolla