New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the number of new cars licensed for the first time in April sank by 90.3% as the outbreak of Covid-19 forced car salesrooms to close all around the country.
The CSO said the number of new cars licensed for the first time last month fell to 1,338 from 13,794 the same time last year.
The number of used, or imported, cars licensed also slumped by 84.9% to 1,321 from 8,728.
Meanwhile, the number of new cars licensed in the first four months of 2020 was 45,505, down over 29% from 64,655 the same time last year.
Recent SIMI figures showed a steeper drop for April than the CSO licensing figures with new car registrations falling to just 344 in April.
The CSO said its monthly licensing figures and the SIMI's registration figures differ due to the different dates on which a vehicle is registered (number plate) and licensed (tax disc).
A vehicle may be registered by a dealership in advance of a sale, and vehicles which are registered in a given month may not be licensed until a later month.
The figures show that Volkswagen was the most popular make of new private car licensed followed by Skoda, Hyundai, Renault, Ford and Toyota.
Together, these six makes represent 48.1% of all new private cars licensed last month.
The CSO also noted a decrease of 68.4% in the number of new goods vehicles licensed in April, bringing the total to 738.
Today's figures also show that electric and hybrid cars continue to grow in popularity.
These vehicles accounted for 15.7% of all private cars licensed in the first four months of 2020, compared with 10.3% the same time last year.
