Ireland had the lowest number of new cars registered in a Western European country in the first six months of this year, according to the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers (ACEA).
The number of new cars registered in Ireland for June is down 36.9 per cent on last June, dropping from 22,782 new registrations to 14,368l.
Overall, for the first six months of 2001, the decrease was 27.9 per cent, a drop from 179,282 to 129,194 new registrations.
The Irish trend runs contrary to those in other European countries, where the new car market performed strongly, posting an increase of 6.8 per cent across Europe on figures for June 2000.
The figures, released today by ACEA - the professional body representing 13 European car, truck and bus manufacturers at European level - show that France (+19.9 per cent) topped the list confirming the upward trend shown throughout the year.
The UK also posted registrations growth (+ 11.4 per cent), mainly due to strong consumer confidence, and Germany (+ 3.5 per cent) is showing signs of recovery.
Italy’s (+ 10.3 per cent) figures are in line with the record figures of last year, and Spain (+ 4.3 per cent) is benefiting from a government incentive scheme to replace older cars.
Smaller markets performed well with Belgium (+ 2.9 per cent) and The Netherlands (+ 2.7 per cent) showing increases for the first time this year. There has also been a significant slowdown in the decline in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden and Finland) over the past 12 months.