Let’s have a look at the top car brands in Ireland and how they performed in 2022 compared to 2021, in terms of sales. There are a couple of big surprises, some car brands lost their leading spots in Ireland and others climbed to the top.
Car Brands Sales in Ireland 2021
According to Statista, the centralised data for the last year is clearly showing that Toyota was the absolute champion among the car brands in Ireland in 2021 in terms of cars sales. The Japanese car manufacturer have sold 13,000 passenger cars on the automotive market in Ireland alone. These numbers propelled them in the first position for best-selling car brands, ahead of their main rivals in Ireland: Volkswagen and Hyundai. Toyota has widened the gap between them and Volkswagen, as the latter company have witnessed a gradual decline in sales since 2019.
Although Toyota has been leading the overall car brands sales in Ireland, the actual best-selling car model comes from its competitor: the Hyundai Tucson. However, Toyota still had the second most popular model: Toyota Corolla. It’s not hard to see why, as the new Corolla variant is based on the popular hybrid powertrain technology and satisfied the demand for both hatchback and sports models. As for Volkswagen, their most popular models were Tiguan and Golf, with a total of 5,000 cars sold.
Looking at the engine statistics, we can see a clear trend of decline for diesel engines sales in all of the car brands in Ireland in 2021. This is obviously a result of the rise of electric and hybrid vehicles, including hybrid SUVs, with all the incentives they come with. Although they are not as popular as they used to be, the diesel engines still registered the highest volume of sales for new passenger cars.
Car Brands Sales in Ireland 2022
The data we have for 2022, including the month of August, is showing some really interesting facts. According to the centralised statistics available at Motorstats – the official statistics of the Irish Motor Industry, the total car registration in 2022 are at the same level as 2021, so the estimated increase from last year did not really occur yet. 95,154 cars have been registered until August 2022, compared to the 96,296 registered until August 2021, so mild 1,2% decrease.
When it comes about the car brands registered in 2022 in Ireland, Toyota have distanced themselves from their main competitor, widening the gap even more. They have 15,340 Toyota cars registered in 2022, a huge 23.9% increase compared to the same period in 2021. That means their share increased from 12.47% to 16.12%.
Hyundai managed to secure the second position for best-selling car brands in Ireland in 2022 too, increasing their units and share as well. At the same time, Volkswagen kept the third position but continues its steady decline in sales (-14.6%), with Kia coming closer and closer from behind. The rest of the top ten car brands in Ireland 2022 is: Skoda, Ford, Peugeot, Audi, Nissan and BMW.
The first two positions in the top 3 most popular models remained unchanged since 2021, with Hyundai Tucson as the champion and Toyota Corolla the runner-up. The third position is taken now by the increasingly popular Kia Sportage. The rest of the top ten popular models 2022 is: Toyota CH-R, Toyota RAV, Toyota Yaris, VW ID.4, Toyota Yaris Cross, Skoda Kodiaq and Hyundai Kona.
