Official figures show that new car sales are still showing a substantial drop in the first nine months of this year, despite a pick-up in September.

The figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) also show a continuing trend towards electric and hybrid cars.

40% September rise

The CSO says 77,620 new cars were licensed in the first nine months of 2020, down 27.9% from the 107,686 in the same period last year. September sales, however, jumped by 40% from a year earlier to 5,747.

The 15,216 electric and hybrid cars licensed in the first nine months of 2020 exceeded the figure for the whole of 2019, which was 14,343.

When combined, these categories now account for just over a quarter of the market, compared with just 12% in the same period in 2019.

COVID-19 effect

The number of new electric cars licensed from January to September this year rose by 15.2% to 3,345. There were 11,871 new hybrid cars licensed in the first nine months of 2020, compared with 10,520 in the same period in 2019.

CSO statistician Olive Loughnane said the drop in new cars was due to the very low numbers licensed during the peak of the COVID-19 crisis.

The number of used cars licensed in September declined by 5.8% from the same month last year, but the CSO said a fall in this category was evident even before the COVID-19 crisis.