New car registrations fell 7.7% in February, according to the latest data from the car industry here, continuing the downward trend of last year.
13,915 new cars were registered during the month, down from 15,069 a year earlier, the information from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry shows.
The fall will come as a disappointment to car dealers who had hoped for an uptick in demand this year following a difficult 2019.
The introduction of a tax on dirtier nitrogen oxide or NOx emitting vehicles in Budget 2020 has had a significant impact on the number of used cars imported into the country, with these types of registrations down 30.1% in February compared to a year earlier.
However, this decrease has not led to increased new car sales, as the car industry here had hoped.
"Political and economic uncertainty is depressing consumer confidence and we now have the added problem of the Coronavirus, which may disrupt new hire drive registrations for the tourist season in March and April," said SIMI Director General, Brian Cooke.
"The introduction of the new NOx charge in January has led to a fall in the demand for older used imports, with a fall of over 40% in used imports over 5 years old."
Overall, a total of 45,096 vehicles have been registered here this year, down 4.9% from the 47,439 recorded in the first two months of last year.
Light commercial registrations fell 6.9% in the month compared to February 2019.
The only vehicle class bucking the trend was Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) which saw a 14.5% rise in registrations last month. Overall since the start of the year, HGV registrations are up 11%.
New electric vehicle registrations were up 23.4% to 401 during the period, with 1,294 new electric cars registered since the start of January, an increase of 15%.
"New electric car registrations are up 15% (1,294) year to date yet, but further analysis of this number reveals that while private consumer purchases of EVs, which still attract the SEAI grant, are up over 30%, there has been a reduction in company electric car purchases where this support no longer applies," said Mr Cooke.
The top ten selling car brands so far this year were Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Skoda, Nissan, Ford, Renault, Kia, Peugeot and Seat.
The Toyota Corolla is the top selling model so far, followed by the Hyundai Tucson, Volkswagen Tiguan, Ford Focus and Nissan Qashqai.
