Hyundai in pole postion among carmakers for sales

Hyundai is the surprise sales leader in the first 10 days of the new 152 registration plate.

Provisional figures show 15,203 new cars have been registered up to the close of business last Friday. The Korean brand accounted for 1,823 of these, ahead of Toyota, Nissan, Volkswagen and Ford.

For the year to date, Volkswagen retains a significant lead over the rest, followed by Toyota, but with Hyundai now in third place ahead of Ford and Nissan. The best-selling models carrying 152 plates are the Nissan Qashqai, VW Golf, Ford Focus and Hyundai iX35.

Skew the market

The car hire market accounts for 4,185 new 152 registrations. Car hire registrations can often skew the new car market as they usually return to showrooms within months, for sale as low-mileage used cars.

With expectations that new car sales for the full year may reach 120,000 – the first time it has exceeded 100,000 since 2008 – initial indications are that July sales have been brisk.

According to Ford chairman and managing director Ciarán McMahon, new car sales this month could reach as high as 28,000, well ahead of the 18,711 registrations for the same month last year.

Market share

Hyundai’s market share now stands at 9.62 per cent in 2015, up from a mere 2.99 per cent in 2009. Its success has come at the cost of established brands.

Over the same period Toyota’s market share has dropped from 14.82 per cent to 10.8 per cent while Ford has fallen from 14.39 per cent to 9.58 per cent.