The Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) recently released their latest vehicle registration figures which show that the car registrations rose again for the month of April. Last month’s figures were up 21% in comparison with the same month last year (9,471 versus 7,822). These latest numbers show that new car registrations are now up 28% year-to-date.

Light commercial vehicle (LCV) registrations are up by 59% on last April (2,088 versus 1,316). LCV registrations for the year-to-date are up by 60%.

So far in 2015 more than 74,000 new cars, and 12,152 LCVs, have been registered. HGV (Heavy Goods Vehicles) registrations are down by 7% year-to-date, but April showed these registrations to be up by 24% - which the industry is hoping will be the beginning of an upward trend.

The top-selling brands for April were: Volkswagen, Toyota and Ford. The top-selling cars were; Volkswagen Golf, Ford Focus and Nissan Qashqai. The top-selling van was the Ford Transit.

Brian Cooke, Deputy Director General SIMI, said: “The increase in registrations continues to demonstrate improvements in the marketplace. The strong growth in retail sales highlights consumer confidence around the country with every county experiencing an increase in sales. Longford has seen the strongest growth in sales with 46%, while Wexford is some way behind the trend with the lowest growth rate of just 10%. LCV registrations continue to show improvements in the business environment as many companies are starting to invest in the renewal of their fleets. HGV registrations year to date continue to remain down overall but we have seen some improvement for the month of April which will hopefully continue as the year progresses”.